Galatea's Descent
by hisviks
Summary: E/S–AU- Put in an impossible position by his Queen the answer to all the Sheriff of Area five's problems seem to reside in a foul mouthed blonde waitress discovered in the small town of Bon Temps. When subterfuge and reality seem to collide nothing can be returned as it once was and the consequences resonate beyond the scope of expectation. Rated M for language and lemons.
1. Chapter 1 - Vampire Walks into a Bar

**A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read this story. I'm relatively new to this writing business having had a very successful maiden voyage by winning Sephrenia's Writing Challenge with my one shot In Memoriam. It can be found on my profile page along with its companion piece Memento Mori. ****If you'd like to read some of my other work I have uploaded the first chapters of two other stories I have been working on to my own site (hisviks dot wordpress dot com) and will be adding them here soon. Expect weekly updates on all three from now on. This story will be updated every Monday.**

**Please note that I don't own anything pertaining to the universe of SVM and True Blood created by Charlaine Harris and HBO. Any recognisable characters, story lines and/or dialogue belong to them.**

Chapter 1

The group of vampires stood huddled underneath the awning away from the torrential rain that had descended from the darkened sky. Their abandoned vehicle stood by the roadside where the engine's rising steam was tempered only by the downpour.

The green neon sign hovering above them flickered intermittently hardly making out the small blond waitress bouncing towards them in red cowboy boots. She was nearing the entrance at great speed fleeing from the rain. The shadowy figures ahead made her wonder who would continue to remain outside in this weather as she clutched her small basket closely to her body, shielding it from the cloudburst.

She overheard a woman commanding one of the others about finding another car that received an unheard disgruntled reply. Before she could even contemplate this reply a gust of wind she recognised as local Vampire Bill had thrown her off course landing her painfully upon her behind in the wet Louisiana red mud. A collection of teal ribbons lay strewn around her.

"Bill Fucking Compton," she screamed towards his long departed form. "You son of a motherfucking..."

"Excuse me?" Came the haughty reply from the same commanding voice she had heard earlier but had failed to recognize.

"Bitch," the young waitress finished now recognising the source of that voice and intently annunciating it at her. Lorena Ball was in the waitress' opinion very worthy of that particular cuss. She continued scrambling at the small ribbons she had spent the afternoon painstakingly assembling. The damage of the mud and rain had unfortunately ruined all but one. She regarded it sadly before unleashing her anger at the auburn haired vampire.

"Manners don't cost a thing you know _Lorena_," she drawled, well aware that the female vampire demanded the town address her as Mrs Ball whenever she deigned to visit. "You'd think a 140 odd years would be enough to teach that dear Billy of yours to watch where he's fucking going. Fucking asshole."

Completely soaked and muddied the waitress continued her ascend up the short set of stairs towards the group of vampires. She thrust her basket of ruined ribbons at Lorena staining her evening dress beyond repair whilst she exclaimed seething, "I'll be expecting reparations for your _childe's_ lack of manners."

Lorena hardly had time to contemplate the assembly of ruined ribbons in a basket as she restrained her youngest child by her flaming red locks. The painful tug thwarted the newborn, who had flung at the waitress fangs out and blazing.

"Mistress," the young vampire hissed in agony, eyes white with shock.

"Fangs up dear Jessica," her maker spoke soothingly whilst petting the top of her head. "No need to bring out the big guns to a minor scuffle with such a cretin."

Not intimidated by the fangs on display in the least, the blonde waitress rolled her eyes at the set of mother daughter vampires. Impatiently tapping her boot on the wooden deck she stood waiting for her demanded compensation.

Greatly appreciative for the uptake in the evening's entertainment the two remaining blonde vampires exchanged amused looks. The female vampire regarded the teal ribbons and pondered aloud what their significance was.

"They raise awareness for ovarian cancer. Sam lets me sell them at Merlotte's every February. The proceeds go to a local charity helping sufferers and their families," the waitress informed whilst regarding the two unknown vampires for the first time.

It was quite an assembly considering their surroundings, donned in the most elegant evening dresses she had ever seen. An extremely tall and blonde male specimen accompanied the women. Never one to fawn over men in suits the waitress decided this would be the exception to her disregard of the costume. This blonde vampire finally made her understand the appeal.

"What is your name?" the female blonde requested pulling the waitress from her thoughts. She blinked once or twice before refocusing.

"Excuse me?" she replied realizing she had zoned out somewhat whilst appreciating the tuxedo adorning the male vampire.

"Your name?" she repeated with a slight bored tone.

"Eh... Sookie Stackhouse," she uttered somewhat unsure how the conversation had steered to the necessity of introductions. Before she could even ponder any further, she was holding a check in her name totalling more than she had managed to raise collectively over the past years. Standing aghast by the amount, Pamela Swynford de Beaufort had achieved what many in Bon Temps had attempted in vain. She had left Sookie Stackhouse speechless.

The male vampire arched his brow questioningly at his progeny. Her antics and disregard for others were a constant in her existence. Any care beyond that of her own wardrobe and shoes was as unique as a mute Sookie Stackhouse.

"Nanny Bitty," she replied to his facial gesture with a small shrug.

Waking from her stupor Sookie carried an even more confused expression across her face. "He's your nanny and you call him Bitty?" If it had not seemed completely unfathomable within the world of vampires she would have laughed decidedly at such a possibility. Vampire relations were not easily read from appearances and Sookie had come across stranger stories in the tabloids littering the local beauty shop.

It was Pamela who delighted everyone with her melodious laugh at the thought of her maker in her Nanny Bitty's Victorian uniform. Barely suppressing the tears forming in the corner of her eyes she replied, "No Eric here is my maker. Nanny Bitty took care of me in my human form but she passed from some mass in her womb. That is what you are raising funds for is it not?"

Sookie nodded her affirmatively. "She was my most favouritest person," Pamela continued wistfully. "I don't remember much but I do remember my Nanny Bitty would scold me for not showing my appreciation for a gift."

"I apologise. Thank you kindly ma'am," Sookie replied in her Church voice.

"You're welcome. Can it with the ma'am I may be old but I certainly don't look it," Pamela responded amused at the rough waitress' transformation into a demure Southern Belle despite appearances.

Sookie smiled warmly at the blonde vampire, she had a rare humour that Sookie for one could appreciate. Lorena had managed to diffuse Jessica's uproar and the tempers of all parties had settled to an uncomfortable silence.

It was the human who decided it was time for all to move inside as the cold winds started to cause shivers on her rain and mud assaulted body. "Sam's not gonna take too kindly to y'all loitering his stoop, standing about like a bunch of glo sticks. Get inside before I have to deal with Oscar the Grouch all night. C'mon git."

She held out the door for the party of vampires who obligingly followed after the giant blonde vampire known as Eric had replied in an exaggerated southern drawl, "Yes ma'am." A hint of blush escaped to the surfaces of her cheeks at the sound of it.

Sam Merlotte had noticed the congregation of vampires taking up space in front of his bar long before the arrival of his favourite waitress. He had become noticeably tense as he watched her interaction with the unwelcome guests. Knowing full well to steer away from Sookie Stackhouse's temper he had remained behind the wooden bar unnecessarily polishing the same spot repeatedly whilst listening in on their exchange.

Sookie had settled the vampires into a booth in her section and disappeared to the back to change into a dry set of her uniform. Wary of Sookie's volatile mood this evening, Sam decided to approach the table of vampires instead, intent on diffusing the situation at hand.

"That check better be genuine," he growled menacingly.

"Good evening to you too Shifter," Eric replied from his semi reclined position in the corner of the booth looking completely at odds with his outfit. The quiet power he exuded left no question to his seniority.

"Northman," he answered begrudgingly with a modicum of respect.

"You best not question Pam's devotion to Nanny Bitty. I think she liked her more than me," Eric chuckled with equal menace at the shifter's discomfort.

"Fine," Sam responded briskly. "Order something and tip your waitress."

Sam had retreated behind the bar once again and the return of the blonde vampires' favourite waitress was announced through the clacking of her sturdy heels across the linoleum tiles. Despite the recognisable set of footwear the demure church mouse that had shown her gratitude was in full appearance now.

"What can I get you all this evening?" she spoke with a sweet cadence.

Jessica scowled at her derisively. Her maker's protective position between her and the waitress had fuelled her bravado.

"It reeks in here. Why would anyone want anything from here?" she whined in an incessantly surly voice.

Eric moved his head minutely at the baby vampire his expression carrying a perfected amount of disdain. Jessica paled as much as possible for a vampire and lowered her head in submission.

Sookie smiled shyly in appreciation whilst once again marvelling at his distinguished form much to his delight. A slip of fang emerged from his lips which caused her to stare at the pristinely cleaned surface of the table as she awaited their order.

"A round of bloods, whatever flavour is available," Eric ordered for them all.

Sookie nodded and moved on to another table. Eric continued to observe the little blonde waitress fluttering around the bar from table to table smiling and engaging in small talk.

"Too bad she's not on the menu," his progeny addressed him in Swedish not willing to include the other vampires at the table. They were bickering about the defining undertones of redneck scent and blood. Their company had been tiring enough before tonight's unexpected events. Neither one of them wanted to hear more spew from their mouths. "She smells delicious."

"Yes. A pity indeed she doesn't seem the type," he replied in his native tongue. The newly emerged subset of fangbangers were east to spot, they were consumed with death. Brushing up against it, seeking it or a disturbing mixture of both. The waitress was full of light and life, in other words the antithesis of a fangbanger.

Eric wasn't impressed easily by a human, vampire or other but this bundle of blonde intrigued him. He watched as she took the drinks order from a rowdy table of burly men. With the speed of a vampire she had prevented a wandering hand before it managed to make contact. As offensive as the lingering limb had been she seemed unfazed by it. Something else had aggravated her ire, which the vampire had been unable to hear. Not for a lack of range but rather the accent, despite his decades of residency he had yet to grasp those nuances in the local pronounciation. A raining tirade of expletives was unleashed on the offender much to the amusement to the set of vampires.

"That would make a formidable vampire," Pam observed.

"We should all seek cover when that happens," Eric chuckled dryly in return.

The group of men looked upon the small waitress suitably terrified and uttered their apologies. Satisfied with their reprieve Sookie spun on her heels towards the kitchen hatch where she entertained an expletive filled conversation with the flamboyant cook Lafayette. Eric observed that they seemed to be competing with shock value laced sentences at each other's expense.

Jessica's whining had gone largely unobserved by Eric and Pam as their eyes and ears followed the waitress. An agitated Lorena was silently cursing her William's lack of expedience in securing them a new mode of transport. Not exactly enjoying the smell nor the atmosphere she decided an exit was necessary.

"Eric," Lorena interrupted the vampire's observation of the waitress. "We're going to glamour one of these vermin to take us to William's home. Will you join us?"

"No we'll wait for Bobby here," Eric replied referring to his day man. Eric didn't bother to witness Lorena glamour a stray patron and departing with Jessica in tow. His attention had refocused back to young Sookie Stackhouse who was now approaching their table with four warmed bottles of True Blood, the detested synthetic substitute of sustenance.

"Where did your friends go? I know they have no need for the facilities," she asked gesturing towards the restrooms.

"Our _acquaintances_ at best," he replied emphasizing the word, "have found a ride with the young man who sat over there."

Sookie observed to where he had gestured and stifled a small laugh. Eric looked at her questioningly as she continued to set down the order on perfectly placed napkins. A short black straw was set beside each bottle.

"When you say 'found' I assume you mean glamour?" He nodded in confirmation at her question, which only led her laugh go somewhat less restrained.

"Serves them right," she offered as she placed the round tray vertically under her armpit. "Let's just say it'll be a while before they end up at Bill's. It's a miracle JB is able to find himself home every night."

"He did not seem intoxicated," Eric pondered. As area sheriff he should have been more concerned with their safety. Her grating personality had left him with little sympathy. The eternal social climber could happily meet her end if it were up to him.

"Oh no, not that," Sookie quickly corrected. "JB well… let's just say he's special."

"Like short bus special?" Pam questioned delighted to be engaging with the little blonde morsel again whilst absently wondering how she would get Eric into Nanny Bitty's uniform this Halloween.

"Mmm, not that serious. Incidentally he's the school bus driver and let's just say that's the only route he remembers."

Pam cackled at the thought of Lorena and Jessica driving aimlessly in the night with a natural born Renfield. No amount of glamour helping them out. Another patron requesting Sookie's attention cut their conversation short leaving the remaining vampires to address the evening's events.

"How will you respond to the Queen's request?" Pam directed at her maker.

A human sigh escaped from Eric's lips as he recalled his Queen's demand that all members of her elite retinue be escorted by a distinguished supernatural of another species when attending the upcoming Supernatural Summit. Co-existence was the new agenda and everyone was to join in with the appearance of it. That's what it was for now, empty words and promises. Eric had yet to see any actions or gestures of actual cooperation.

"What about Evangeline? She was part sprite before she was turned. Sophie Anne might agree to that."

Pam observed the minute shiver expressed by her maker before he replied, "No that woman is excruciating. She was turned while on the rag by that PMS-ing bitch of a maker of hers. The pair of them are eternal bloody nightmares. Literally."

Pam was well aware of her maker's disdain for the part sprite but his discomfort at the situation was quite enjoyable. She couldn't help but prod further.

"Dr Ludwig?" She batted her eyes innocently well aware that the number of witnesses present would temper her maker's ire should it rise too high at her antics.

"Pamela," he warned through his teeth.

"We'll just have to scour the Patricius Supernaturalis till we find some lesser sprite or fae to accompany you," she returned with a small amount of defeat knowing her teasing limit had been reached.

Eric scoffed at her ambition he was well aware that any of those requests would be unequivocally denied. Sophie Anne knew of the position she had requested of her Sheriff and he wondered for the nth time that night whether it really was just a setup for him to fail, another pathetic attempt of the child queen's power plays.

"I think we'll have more chance convincing everyone that our waitress is the Queen of the Brownies," he replied sarcastically.

Instead of the expected amusement from his childe he received a steely determination.

"Eric that's brilliant," she exclaimed.

"Stop Pam. This is a ridiculous Hollywood plot that's a far too dangerous play in the current political arena."

Pam's determination wasn't diminished in the least by her maker's protest.

"Look she's obviously something _other,_ she recognised our glow. She works for a shifter who comes to her defence immediately. Her tiny stature has instilled more fear in these humans than any vampire present tonight. We buff her up polish up the edges. Pass her off as some forgotten lost lesser fae noble, duchess, marquise or whatever. I'm willing to risk my entire shoe collection that this will work."

Eric was impressed by her intent. Pam did not mess about when it came to her prized footwear. He regarded the little waitress once more, her beauty and allure were of no issue. She had appealed to his baser self shamelessly when covered in nothing but mud and drenched hair. She was enticing even when dishevelled and he allowed himself briefly to entertain the possibility.

He'd have to regretfully clean out that filthy mouth. Instruct her on all the intricacies of supernatural politics to create the persona. Pam would be in charge of wardrobe and etiquette. It could work but he remained hesitant. Were she to be unmasked as a fraud there would be serious consequences to his position. Dr Ludwig was the safer choice even if it would cost him through the nose.

Convinced that this was simply another scheme of Pam's to intern another house pet he decided to prod her resolve.

"Let me guess and if you succeed I'll be doubling that shoe collection at my cost?"

Pam seemed to be gathering some courage, which puzzled Eric as Pam was never scared to speak her mind.

"_When_ I succeed you will release me."

Eric was disappointed in her, it was obviously a passing fancy and Pam's boredom had already taken over.

"You have already been released Pam if you want to continue this pretence at least conjure up something believable." He had released her decades ago yet her loyalty had always kept her close. It was a quality he always enjoyed in her unlike her penchant for drama.

Pam's determination had remained intact as she repeated the sentence she had just uttered pausing for an unnecessary breath whilst adding, "as Godric released you."


	2. Chapter 2 - Smile

"_When I succeed you will release me."_

_Eric was disappointed in her, it was obviously a passing fancy and Pam's boredom had already taken over. _

"_You have already been released Pam if you want to continue this pretence at least conjure up something believable." He had released her decades ago yet her loyalty had always kept her close. It was a quality he always enjoyed in her unlike her penchant for drama._

_Pam's determination had remained intact as she repeated the sentence she had just uttered pausing for an unnecessary breath whilst adding, "as Godric released you."_

Chapter 2

_As Godric released you._

The words rung sharply through his head. He was well aware of their meaning and her intent.

_As Godric had released him._

His maker had granted him a final command upon his release. They were the words rarely spoken by a maker to his progeny.

'_Upon this release I command you from this point forward to disregard all I ever command of you and respond from your own will. No command spoken from me will reverse this. You are truly free my child.'_

Whilst a release from one's maker assured that one could leave his or her side the opportunity to command one's child would remain entrenched. It distinguished the nature of a vampire, always to be at mercy of the one who made you till their final death. Godric had gifted Eric with something uncommon in the vampire world. He had returned him his free will as he had taken it the night he was turned. Yet his maker's protection had remained intact.

Somewhat taken aback by the extent of Pam's request his defences prevailed. The bond that existed between them was shut out. She had been given more freedom and respect than most whilst still under his full command. He had never forced her, the reprimands had been gentle. If any criticism were to come to him it was that Eric was perhaps too indulgent with his progeny.

"You are not ready," he simply responded without a note of the emotions that were swirling inside of him coming out for an appearance.

"_You_ are not ready," she replied staring him down. Pam was exceptional in moments like these, it was from this recognition that had motivated her turning at his hands.

Eric regarded his child carefully, silence holding them both hostage in the noisy environment of the bar. He was extremely proud of her and her achievements but the request of separation antagonised him. Not so much that she wanted distance from his side. He had granted that to her in the past and she had taken full opportunity of it. No it was the definitive nature of it, the severing of the tie.

Her conclusion was just, Eric indeed wasn't ready for that. He didn't know if he would be in six months' time either. One thing he knew for certain was that a determined Pam never left him disappointed.

He ran the possible scenarios through his mind at the speed of light and ascertained the probability of success. He made his decision.

Eric would be lying to himself if he denied the prospect of the blonde waitress was not influencing his decision. Woman rarely held his attention this long, she was a mystery waiting to be unravelled. One part filth that rivalled a chimney stack and another part that was as white and innocent as virginal snow. He couldn't wait to get his hands dirty.

In the worst case scenario Ms Stackhouse would be in possession of a large shoe collection. He would have six months of time to talk Pam out of her request whilst being entertained by the lovely little blonde morsel. He remained the one firmly in control. Though he prided himself on keeping his word if he deemed Pam unfit for the freedom he possessed there was no process of appeals. His decision was what determined the outcome. All in all he had little to lose.

He was certain once a tirade of Sookie's was directed at Pam she would falter and change her tune. It was without question that she would need guidance from them both if she were to successfully navigate the political realm of the supernatural. The victory of presenting Sookie would belong to them both and though their agreement appeared as a bet it wasn't. They were working together towards the same goal. His shrewd acumen had determined he would win no matter what the outcome.

Somehow this might actually work.

Eric offered Pam his hand in a very unvampire like gesture.

"Deal," he said as Pam looked slightly disturbed at the stretched out limb.

"Deal."

They shook each other's hand with a bit of hesitance, both over what they had just agreed upon as well as the feel of the unknown gesture.

oOOoOOoOOo

Merlotte's Bar and Grill had emptied out considerably and whilst Sam was assisting Jane Bodehouse's son with his drunken mother Sookie approached Eric to settle their bill. Pam had been concerning herself with the only other waitress still on duty, Dawn Green.

"Still waiting for Bill?" she asked as she returned with the change.

Bill had made a brief appearance in search for his maker and sister and was now inevitably on a wild goose chase searching for two vampires and JB on the wet and muddy roads of Bon Temps.

"My day man Bobby actually. He is taking unusually long and not responding to my calls," Eric offered somewhat apologetically knowing the hour was late for her whilst the night was still young for vampires. He was made well aware by the yawns Sookie had been suppressing for the last hour.

"Where's he coming from?" she asked politely whilst wiping down the table beside theirs. They had occupied their table for hours and Sookie suspected the man was lost or simply gave up trying to persevere through the storm.

"Shreveport."

"I doubt he'll be showing up tonight. I assume he drives a similar car to that one." She gestured at the stranded luxury vehicle outside.

"Same one different colour," he offered with a smirk. Eric enjoyed her forwardness, she allowed little to stand in her way whilst it seemed everyone around her was determined to do so. He had always preferred cities to towns for this reason. The anonymity gave way to liberties a town like Bon Temps would bar.

"He's probably stuck somewhere. It's a nice car an' all but they don't do well on these back roads, especially in this weather," Sookie offered in explanation of the poorly maintained roads of her parish. "The cell reception disappears in a circle of about 50 yards from here."

She had moved the flap full off bills towards Eric which he promptly returned in her direction.

"You have been a delight this evening keep the change," he offered with his most satisfying grin. Somewhat flustered Sookie looked down at the bills. The tip was larger than the bill.

"It's too much," she stammered. Eric enjoyed this side of Sookie too, when confronted with something unknown she became adorably flustered. She didn't recoil from something new like most, she was fire and innocence all rolled into one. On this basis alone he would be seeking her out, Sophie Anne's requirements calling for subterfuge or not.

"I think we already established Nanny Bitty expects a different response," he replied slightly admonishing with another brow raised smirk. She was already developing a signature scowl in response to the grating gesture.

"Nanny Bitty sounds like my Gran," she responded with a small smile and a roll of her eyes. Putting on her best British accent she dropped into a curtsy whilst exclaiming dramatically, "Thank you, kind Sir."

Eric had to laugh at her British accent through the filter of her southern drawl. It sounded more like a strangled cat than any self-respecting Brit. She shared his laughs at her own antics.

"Shall I take you and your child to Bon Temps' one and only vampire friendly B&B?" she offered.

"Bon Temps has a vampire friendly B&B?" he asked with a surprise. Any vampire held business in his area was known to him. He wondered if Bill, the only vampire for miles, was hiding the necessary tribute of such an establishment.

"It's a single light tight room and the breakfast is a bottle of O neg so don't get too excited. But if you prefer roughing it at Casa di Compton I can drop you off there instead," she smiled smugly at him knowing the dilapidated state of the less than stellar accommodations in the old antebellum home.

"What's not to get excited about with you around?" he leered at her, encroaching closer to her over the Formica table. His hand lingered closely to her working one as he motioned over to Pam, "Though Pam seems to have found a better prospect than a bottle of O."

"Oh," Sookie managed to stutter out as she regarded Pam's advances on Dawn. A shot of mirth overtook her features as she overheard Pam exclaiming Dawn was Pam's most favouritest person in Bon Temps.

"Was Nanny Bitty a brunette too?" Sookie sniggered at Eric. It only heightened his good mood despite the circumstances of being stuck in a backwater Louisiana town with most likely two broken down vehicles and an incompetent day man.

He hardly remembered the description of Pam's beloved governess but he remembered that she was indeed a brunette. At his confirmation of her assumptions they couldn't help but share in revelry at Pam's expense.

Pam had been prepared for a whole range of Eric's reactions after Sophie Anne's announcement earlier that night. Irritation and anger were her best guess but the sight before her was not one she could have fathomed in a million years. There stood her maker giggling with a tiny blonde waitress in atrocious red cowboy boots. The worst part was now that she looked properly Dawn did somewhat resemble her beloved Nanny Bitty. She huffed audibly her annoyance unmistakeable.

"Let's go!" Pam spoke at a far too loud volume as she failed to hide her irritation.

This only served to increase the giggles from the newly formed blonde twosome and subsequently left a confused Dawn behind as Pam stormed out the doors.

oOOoOOoOOo

They had departed from Merlotte's without interruption, aside from a questioning expression from Sam's face. It was met with a patented Sookie Stackhouse 'don't you even dare tell me what to do Sam Merlotte' look promptly shutting him up before uttering a single word.

"Here we are," she exclaimed proudly as they approached her old family homestead. There was a bit of repeated hilarity as Eric attempted to gracefully unfold himself from her ridiculously compact rust bucket of a car bearing the colour of the sun. His exit had been much like his entrance into the vehicle, suitably clumsy. Sookie and Pam tried feverously to steel their amusement but failed miserably.

"You are sure the proprietor is still awake?" Eric questioned trying to regain some dignity as they moved at accelerated human speed towards the front porch seeking shelter from the continued downpour. The property was far too simple to be vampire owned, most likely it was an extended service of an established B&B. He just hoped it didn't belong to a desperate fangbanger, he saw enough of those on a nightly basis.

"Of course," Sookie squealed breathlessly as she ran for cover. "You're looking at her."

"You are our gracious vampire friendly host? You don't seem the type," he replied once they were all safely dry on the porch whilst Sookie dug out her keys. Rather than being greeted with a set of jiggling keys Eric was surprised with the set face of Sookie Stackhouse's infamous temper. For the first time in his existence as a vampire he paled in complexion as he silently vowed never to be at the receiving end of her temper again.

"I didn't mean to imply..." he stammered only digging himself further in his chosen hole.

"That I'm a fangbanger," she finished for him with an accusing arched brow not unlike the one he often sported himself.

"Yes. I mean no," he flailed helplessly.

This particular hole seemed to be filled with quicksand.

"Or my grandmother?" Her gaze remained unrelenting until a tiny smirk betrayed her. A small sigh of relief was released at the sight of it. "Don't worry I've been and will be called far worse," she replied in a friendlier tone. "For the record I'm not. It's why Lorena and I are such besties as she assumed I was the advertised breakfast."

Pam had greatly enjoyed her maker's discomfort but was somewhat disappointed at the prospect of a bottled breakfast. That was always her favourite part of staying in vampire friendly hotels, breakfast in bed. She contemplated seeking out Dawn again despite her Nanny Bitty resemblance. With a good squint she could pass as someone else. She'd even disregard the ridiculous name.

The two vampires uncharacteristically followed Sookie timidly into her home after being granted an invite. She showed them up towards their room after walking through the common areas of the ground floor. The modest room contained a brass queen bed with floral patterned bedding and a perfectly appointed adjoining compact bathroom. The windows had shutters with sensors opening and closing with the arrival and departure of the sun. The whitewashed boards that were the original wall covering were filled with paintings and pictures that had been Stackhouse heirlooms for centuries. The bare polished yellow pine planks of the floor was partially covered with a bright faded rug. Sookie's grandmother Adele had paid special attention to the lighting using low wattage bulbs to ease the vampires' eyes.

The room was an assembly of Stackhouse hospitality with a feminine homely charm. It was not what would traditionally appeal to the tastes of vampires nor what they would seek to recreate for themselves. It was exactly for these reasons that Eric liked it so much. It was as unexpected and charming as their host.

Pam of course saw the snags and imperfections; the roughness of the boards, the wear on the armchair by the window, the homeliness of Adele's crafted quilt, the towels that were becoming threadbare. Despite all that she recognised an innate sense of pride in the space one wouldn't expect in such an environment and for that reason she liked it.

"It's nice," the two vampires spoke in an uncoordinated unison.

"Thank you," Sookie responded with an appropriate modicum of delight. She proceeded to explain some of the practicalities in the bathroom and setup of the vaulted steel door and showed them the rest of her home to which they would have access to.

"What made you open up your home to vampires?" Eric questioned carefully at the end of their tour fearing a reprisal of her ire whether real or faked. Both were equally frightening to him. They were seated comfortably around the hearth in the living room.

"My Gran actually," she corrected. "This was her home and when y'all revealed yourselves she was giddy like a young girl at the prospect of meeting a vampire."

Sookie smiled wistfully at her Gran's youthful spirit that seemed an effervescent part of her.

"Had she been younger I'm pretty sure she would have been beating down the door at that vampire bar down in Shreveport. Although I have a hard time imagining her in that Goth gear," Sookie couldn't help but laugh at the thought of it.

Pam barely batted an eyelash at the idea. She had stood at the door of said nightclub night upon night and when it came to fangbangers there was no set type. They all dressed the same but they certainly weren't the same. A granny had slipped in once or twice, they were usually great fun. The blood was slightly stale though.

"She just wanted to get to know y'all, the stories, the lives you led, the lessons learned. I think she was secretly seeking kindred spirits of those who retained their youth in their old age. She was always complaining about what fuddy-duddies her fellow octogenarians were." As she spoke Eric noticed that Sookie seemed different. Less guarded than before but she kept her distance regardless. Most likely a wise decision as the only human in a home with relatively unknown vampires. "She waited a full year and no vampires appeared in Bon Temps. Under the guise of Mohammed and the mountains she decided to convert the guest room and registered it on the Dark Nights reservation website.

"We didn't get a lot of customers out here but enough to have kept my Gran entertained and occupied. The remote location and lack of a Dracula theme usually attracted the equally curious nocturnal guests." She reached over for the guest register displaying several photographs of her Gran with an assortment of illustrious vampires and dedicated words of gratitude to their gracious hostess Adele.

Eric and Pam looked suitably impressed by their predecessors as they turned the pages until they stumbled upon a page that made them both stop. Staring back at them next to the brightly shining Adele stood Godric smiling with equal vigour. Eric looked disbelievingly at the picture had he not witnessed the smiling faces on previous pages he would be certain it was a doctored image. Never had he witnessed his maker with such an expression of genuine joy even in their most private of moments.

Never in a thousand years.


	3. Chapter 3 - Maker

_Eric and Pam looked suitably impressed by their predecessors as they turned the pages until they stumbled upon a page that made them both stop. Staring back at them next to the brightly shining Adele stood Godric smiling with equal vigour. Eric looked disbelievingly at the picture had he not witnessed the smiling faces on previous pages he would be certain it was a doctored image. Never had he witnessed his maker with such an expression of genuine joy even in their most private of moments. _

_Never in a thousand years._

Chapter 3

The silence in the house was only interjected by the cicadas surrounding the Stackhouse property and the raindrops on the tin roof. Eric continually stared at the picture of his maker with an equally befuddled Pam by his side. Sookie greatly enjoyed silence and usually appreciated the silence offered by vampires to her telepathic brain. This silence however was one riddled with tension and confusion. She chose to bite the bullet and suffer the brunt if necessary.

"You know Godric?" she asked tentatively at the absent minded vampires.

She was met with a set of confused eyes as they moved their stares towards her. Where she had considered the engulfing silence as tense, the set of gazes sitting upon her now were downright unnerving.

"He is my maker."

The words had tumbled out of Eric's mouth before he had realised what he had spoken. Another first, never in his thousand years had he relinquished words coming from his mouth without a thought of what he was to speak first. To do so carelessly with information he did not reveal to other vampires let alone to mere mortals was uncharacteristic of him.

Pam would use said slip up later on in the evening before they fell to their day rest as proof that they had fallen into the twilight zone and discovered a unicorn as they lay disbelievingly staring up at the cracks in the ceiling.

There had been little conversation after that reveal and Sookie had retreated to rest her weary eyes. She bid them goodnight leaving them behind to their daze. Neither vampire had thought to broach the subject of their young forged deal.

The following day Sookie spent her time cleaning up after her nightly guests and checking the expiration dates on the True Bloods she had residing in her fridge. It had been quite some time since the last vampire guest had departed.

She thought back to Godric's visit, she remembered him as a kind soul with a certain amount of gloom surrounding him. Gran had really lifted his spirits for she remembered the despondency had somewhat dissipated when he checked out and his gleaming smile was a sign of that. Albeit a brief appearance.

Gran had been very fond of Godric and they had continued to exchange letters after his visit. He had even come to attend the night time service prior to her funeral. Her contact with Godric was limited beyond that, he had been polite and kind and therefore she was equally kind and polite in return. They exchanged Christmas cards.

The thought of the timid small vampire taking charge of the giant that was Eric Northman amused her somewhat. Said giant who was upstairs in the only light tight bedroom in Bon Temps with most likely his feet hanging off the bed.

She heard some shuffling on the floor upstairs alerting her at least one of the vampires was up and moving about. The sun had begun its descent towards the horizon but was far from fully dissipated. Used to the varying ages of previous guests she reckoned Eric must be quite old to be up so early. Sookie listened to the movement in the tired pipes and droplets of water coming from the adjoining bathroom as she continued to read her latest novel.

She was interrupted by some cursing in what she assumed was Eric's native language. The bathroom while small and perfectly formed was probably proving a bit of a challenge for a man of his size. She giggled with a good amount of schadenfreude when she heard him collide with the shower head for the second time with a now familiar accompanying string of curse words.

"I am glad the misfortune of others amuses you so much Ms. Stackhouse," he bellowed down loud enough for her to hear which only further fuelled her laughter but resulted in a small chuckle of his own.

She heard the airtight lock disengage and close again indicating Eric had moved onto the small light tight lounge on the landing which her Gran had used to entertain her guests before sundown. Sookie popped a pair of Tru Bloods into the microwave in preparation.

"My apologies Mr. Northman we're not exactly Viking proof around here," she mock apologised when she reached the landing with the warmed bottles of blood in her hand.

"None needed Ms. Stackhouse it is not as if you were expecting me." He smiled at her, now donned in a track suit and flip flops. Sookie observed that Eric even made that look good so she decided her appreciation of a man in a suit was a fluke and must be relegated to the occupier of said suit. After all she never considered a man in a track suit attractive or flip flops for that matter.

"Well my Gran was always expecting you to check in to the room upstairs after hearing Godric speak so much about his prodigal son. She was planning on putting in a Viking sized tub until she figured it would never fit."

The earlier jovialness had somewhat dissipated from Eric's demeanour and Sookie was worried she had done something wrong.

"I'm sorry," she spoke genuinely apologetic. "I won't speak of your maker anymore."

She had become somewhat meek and Eric observed it did not suit her at all. He sought to remedy it immediately.

"No it is not painful to speak of him..." he said to assure her she had not misspoken. "It is surprising to see him so..."

"Happy?" she asked completing his thought.

"Yes. Happy," he replied as if the word was a strange taste in his mouth.

"Well that's not the person who showed up on our doorstep," she said whilst pointing at the unnerving photograph. "He came in with such a cloud of darkness. Gran nicknamed him Atlas, you know carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders."

Eric released a breath from his nose as he moved his hand and placing it underneath his chin as he leaned his elbow unto his knee. Lost in thought he looked very much the 'Thinker' by Rodin. It didn't help that he was frighteningly still.

"How long was he here?" he finally asked.

"He was only supposed to stay the night. He had come out of curiosity, he had never spent the night in a human's home as a guest. He was intrigued I guess. Gran latched onto him instantly. Had she been able to she would have stuffed him up with her home cooking. She tried to fatten him up with True Blood instead." She laughed in memory of her Gran's antics. "She wasn't very successful. He stayed though regardless of her mothering. He'd extend the stay a night then a couple more in the end I think he stayed well over a month's time."

"How much do you know about me?" he asked with an air of self-consciousness he had never previously expressed in his existence. Only his maker could make him feel that.

"Not much, he spoke with Gran mostly. Mighty Viking and all that and an extreme dislike of wolves or something or the other. At least that's all I remember." He nodded at her in affirmation.

"Are you not in contact with him or somethin'?" she pondered aloud without realising she had voiced her thought.

"Our relationship..." he started but then continued to sigh.

"It's complicated?"

"Very."

"Enough said." She smiled encouragingly. "Bobby dropped off another car and some clothes for Pam." She motioned towards the bag that had lain next to the door but had apparently already been brought into the bedroom already. The tell-tale sign of running pipes alerted her that Pam was now up an about.

"Do you do this often?" Eric questioned after supressing his grimace upon downing another gulp of the vile tasting artificial blood. He could only drink it out of politeness beyond that it was an affront to his senses.

"Pick up stray vampires?" Her question was answered with a minute nod.

"No after Gran's death I closed down the B&B business, I don't have the time for it with my shifts at Merlotte's and it was never really financially viable," Sookie explained as she reset his bottle on the lace doily her grandmother had made. "My brother Jason and I indulged it as Gran's hobby. I've helped out Bill in the past accommodating his guests as he lives across the cemetery. Not everyone shares his philosophy of 'organic' vampirism."

"Organic vampirism?" Eric had heard a lot of strange terms come and go but this one was new to him.

"That's what my Gran called it. A lot of humans are now eating foods that haven't been artificially enhanced or sprayed with pesticides for their health. It's called the organic movement. It encompasses an appreciation of a simpler approach towards food so Gran thought Bill's conviction to spend his day rest in the dirt mirrored that conviction."

Eric was amused by Adele's observation and understood Godric's fascination with the cheerful breather. It was rare for a human to possess sight beyond their own existence one really had to live longer than an average human lifespan for that. Although Eric was decidedly more intrigued by the young mortal flurrying in front of him as she fidgeted with her shoe laces.

"All your guests behave?" he wondered how no vampire had decided to snack on the defenceless women before him. It was only because he enjoyed a willing conquest that his gallant behaviour was in full effect.

"All of Gran's guests were model citizens... Well you've seen my interactions with the courteous Lorena. Let's just say she prefers to go organic than spend the night here."

She received a knowing smirk at that information. It was a favour to Sophie Anne that had them dropping of Lorena and her children. He and Pam couldn't stand the social climbing female vampire.

"I had to rescind the invitation to Bill's friends Liam, Malcom and Diane," Sookie said groaning at the memory of that particular stay. "They were ready to tear the place apart. I've cooled off a bit for Bill's friends for a while."

"So we were only allowed in because we were _acquaintances_?"

"Well that certainly worked in your favour," she returned with a wink.

"The Disco triplets were here?" a freshly fluffed Pam in pastels asked with a note of disgust as she entered the landing space.

"They didn't survive the night," Eric responded much to Pam's amusement as she perched herself daintily on the arm of Eric's chair facing Sookie.

"We have business to discuss," Pam reminded of the previous evening's forgotten conversation.

"Don't worry friends stay for free," Sookie responded.

"We're your friends?" Pam asked with an unnatural amount of glee to her new disposition.

"Well any non-friend of Lorena is a friend of mine," she smirked at the set of vampires.

"We will pay the going rate regardless of whether we are friends or not," Eric responded succinctly not leaving any room for argument.

"Fine," she huffed disgruntled but not in the mood to argue over the acceptance of gift horses once more.

"Fascinating as this little exchange is," Pam interjected as she pointed between their host and her maker. "It is not the business I was regarding to."

Sookie looked somewhat lost at where the conversation had headed towards whilst Eric finally caught on.

"I would like for you to escort me to a Supernatural Summit as my companion," he said with a tone of business not unlike the one he carried moments earlier.

"Like a date?" she asked somewhat confused finding unfathomable what he would be wanting with her at some fancy summit before a horrible thought entered her mind. "I'm not the main course or something right?"

"What?" Pam said with a look of confusion. Like they'd ever ask if that was the case. "No. It's all very amicable at these summits best behaviour, p's and q's and all that. It's an interspecies event," she assured the worried looking blonde.

"So what you need human pet to traipse around with? Not really interested," Sookie said with a contorted face.

"You're hardly human," Eric replied disregarding her pet remark and lack of enthusiasm. He enjoyed riling her up although he was careful not to push her towards her full ire. That had been far too scary place to be.

"Certainly more than you," she scoffed back. "I'm as human as they come."

Eric sniffed the air surrounding her intently. "You are most definitely _other_. If I have to guess there's a whiff of Fae about you. I can sample your blood to confirm," he leered far too delighted at the prospect for Sookie's comfort. She inched back into the soft embrace of the armchair to gain any matter of distance between them. Her rescinding of an invitation ready to fall of her tongue.

"Sure that's how little Red Riding Hood got eaten. Thank you but no thank you," she replied curtly whilst remembering her p's and q's.

"Sookie your shifter boss comes to your defences without question. The people of this town are more scared to be on the receiving end of your temper than of a vampire even if it is Bill," Pam replied with a grimace at the mention of the vampire next door whilst continuing to check off her list with a display of upturning fingers. "The most impressive array of vampires has flocked to your doorstep. There is something about this town that is other and you are as well." Pam hoped Sookie would just accept she was some form of other so they could move on to the more laborious end of the conversation. Patience had never been a virtue she possessed willingly.

"Sam's just a loyal friend and maybe he likes me a little more than he should. Vampire Bill's just a big softie, people round here are plenty scared of Lorena. And those vampires came to see Gran, not me," Sookie tried to rationalise failing to even convince herself.

Her telepathy was certainly not a human trait. She had developed quite the defences to shield her mind and herself of her secret including an impressive bite to go with her bark. As much as she liked the two vampires in front of her she wasn't about to let them in on that secret so easily even if it had piqued her curiosity to the origin of her ability.

"Sookie," Pam began exasperated. "Eric here is the leading authority on all things other. If he hasn't tasted it or smelled it doesn't exist. If he says you're other than you my little fairy princess are other."

"So you just go round the world sampling from sweet innocent little necks to satisfy your exotic tastes?" she asked Eric pointedly in an attempt to deflect the looming status of her otherness.

"Seek them out like some wine connoisseur? No, but if something happens to cross my path who am I to say no? A thousand years is a long time to come across many paths," he replied wistful at the memories of the outlandish bloods that had graced his tongue.

"You're a thousand years old?" she exclaimed with eyes wide. The two vampires exchanged a confused look.

"You are aware that in comparison to most of your former guests I'm considered young?" Eric replied.

"Well Gran never thought it polite to ask so we always hazarded a guess but we never thought any of y'all were that old."

"You knew I was a Viking in my human days," Eric observed.

"We thought it was a nickname due to your size," she said and as if in demonstration her neck strained a little to reach his eyes.

"Can we get to the gist of it already?" Pam drawled hoping to speed things along to get to her personal morning breakfast by the name of Dawn. She had carefully avoided the offending bottle after the obligatory first sip.

"Please continue," Sookie gestured her hands in accordance.

"Are you aware of the vampire political hierarchy?" Sookie nodded. "Well the Queen of Louisiana has demanded I am to be accompanied by an '_other'_ companion at the summit. It's a false display of power. As her Sheriff I must come and prove her agenda to suit her political ambitions."

"I still don't understand what you need from me in all this?"

"Considering Eric's voracious tastes he has somewhat of a reputation among suitable candidates for the job. Broken one to many hearts and/or necks," Pam spoke accusingly at Eric who responded with a suitably innocent expression and a small shrug.

"So your queen is setting you up to fail and you need to pass me off as a doting companion?" Sookie summarised.

"Exactly."


	4. Chapter 4 - Luxury

"_I still don't understand what you need from me in all this?"_

"_Considering Eric's voracious tastes he has somewhat of a reputation among suitable candidates for the job. Broken one to many hearts and/or necks," Pam spoke accusingly at Eric who responded with a suitably innocent expression and a small shrug._

"_So your queen is setting you up to fail and you need to pass me off as a doting companion?" Sookie summarised._

"_Exactly."_

Chapter 4 - Luxury

"All right I'm in. Let me know the date and I'll make sure Sam keeps my schedule clear," Sookie responded. Sophie Anne sounded like a right bitch to her and she'd happily come along for the ride to piss her off.

"It's not that simple," Eric replied.

"We'll need to pass you off as a lesser noble fae. As delightful as you are we're going to need to educate you in all things supernatural, decorum, etiquette, blah blah, blah," Pam drawled with a more urgent impatience spurned on by her impending meal. She desperately needed to wrap this up before she would have to succumb to drinking the vile synthetic.

"How much time are we talking about?"

"The Summit is in six months I think we will need every night before that to pass you off as legitimate," Eric stated matter of factly.

"Six months. That's too much I can't miss out on work for that long," Sookie grumbled looking for a polite response to bow out.

"You will be paid accordingly. We will feed you and dress you befitting your status. You would live with me as a companion would. All we require of you is your input and effort."

"How much are ya paying her?" came a voice descending from the staircase.

"Jason!" Sookie scolded at her older brother.

"What? It's a legitimate question," he responded unimpressed with his younger sister's scolding before his eyes took in the sight of Pam. "Hey there pretty lady. You in need of a date too?" He finished off with his patented shit eating grin.

Pam cocked her eyes at him, the male sex had lost its appeal long ago but she was feeling peckish and he did smell awfully good. Sookie and Eric weren't making this go any faster. She gave her maker an annoyed glance to seal the deal already.

"A hundred thousand dollars," Eric replied in response to Jason's initial question.

"I'll do it!" Jason exclaimed with gusto.

"The offer transcribes only to your sister," Eric spoke coolly wondering who had dropped him on his head repeatedly to be so far intellectually removed from the other known Stackhouses.

"Transwhat now?"

"Pamela why don't you take Jason for a walk and explain the meaning of transcribe," Eric spoke giving his progeny a knowing glance. Between Pam's hunger and Jason's interruption Sookie was becoming more indecisive and Eric needed her on board now that he had committed himself to Pam's plan.

Jason happily followed after Pam like a lost little puppy hoping for a treat leaving Eric and Sookie alone.

"You're asking me a lot," she started once the landing had quieted down.

"I am well aware." Sookie gulped audibly at his disconcerting stare.

"You're paying me a lot."

"I can afford it and you deserve it," he replied coolly.

"Way to make a girl feel special," she mumbled disgruntledly.

"Let me be clear I am paying you for your time, not for sex and not for your blood. Although I would very much like to savour both," he said with an accompanying leer. "I consider that to be leisurely pursuits outside of work time. It is not a condition to our working relationship." He had continued in his business tone once more.

Well that answered any of Sookie's wonderings about the cause of those scorned hearts, it seemed he was lacking one.

The prospect of devoting herself to this project of subterfuge was daunting but the money was enticing. The amount of money scared her at the same time. Could she really perform in accordance to the salary? She thought of what her Gran would advise her to do. That settled it for her.

"I'll need to check that I'm not leaving Sam in a lurch but I guess Mohammed is going to the mountains," she sighed feigning some enthusiasm to mask the intimidating task ahead of her.

oOOoOOoOOo

Sookie was startled at how quickly her life was wrapped up and packed on its way to Shreveport. Sam had been expectantly disgruntled at her sudden departure but had refrained his disapproving opinions to remain within Sookie's good graces. Jason was happily stuffing suitcases rushing his sister out the door whilst Pam disapprovingly rid said suitcases of any clothing that did not meet her discerning eye. Sookie ended up with a very light suitcase.

Eric had the demon lawyer Cataliades messenger over the contract for Sookie's employment and it was promptly signed with a little extra nudging from Jason. Her brother was already talking Sookie's ear off with one his get rich quick schemes. Pam couldn't decide whether Jason was an idiot savant or just an idiot. Eric leaned heavily on the latter.

Sookie had said goodbye to her home for and even found the time to visit her Gran's grave. The eventful night had them arriving at Eric's estate closely before midnight. Walking up the gravel drive with a single decidedly empty suitcase she pondered for the possibly hundredth time that night how she had ended up agreeing to this.

oOOoOOoOOo

Sookie hadn't known what to expect of Eric's home. She knew it would be far from a Gothic castle with moats, dragons and coffins. On the drive over she had a hard time imagining the vampire inhabiting a traditional antebellum period home or a suburban idyll enclosed with a white picket fence. She had sniggered briefly much to the confusion of her accompanying vampires at the thought of a cheery yellow lab waiting within that picket fence waggling its tail in greeting. Eric didn't seem like a dog person or a cat person for that matter.

The home that stood before her wasn't anything she could have conjured up in her imagination. She didn't know whether it would be considered modernist or contemporary for she had never seen a home like it. The house was a juxtaposition of boxes made up of sheets of clear glass and smoothly polished limestone gathered round a reflecting pool. The property was secluded amongst a forest of cypress trees that extended into a bayou in the back that was illuminated by the waxing moon.

"The trees here remind me of the birch forests of my homeland in winter," Eric noted when he saw her admiring the rigidly linear bare foliaged shapes that make up the inherently characteristic shoreline of a bayou. She had nodded appreciatively as she followed him in to the interior.

"Do the mosquitos get high on your blood?" she blurted out at random, her mind still on the stagnant water out back unable to quite process what was in front of her.

He chuckled at her question before responding, "I believe they prefer their victims as warm blooded as we do. I've never suffered a bite."

"Lucky you," she mumbled as she continued to gaze around the home. If she had ever thought to contemplate what her choice of decor would be it stood to be related to the comfort of her Gran's home. Even though it was officially her home now she would always consider it her grandmother's. She would have said something so distinctly contemporary would never suit her tastes but as she followed Eric around his abode she began to understand its appeal.

Where she had expected a cold indifference from the inherent restraint in decor she found how all intent was vested on specific pieces instead. Undoubtedly sourced through the ancient vampire's many lifetimes. Every surface, finish and corner spoke of a calculated decision; it was all distinctly him. Everything that was on display was singularly significant. It was in contrast to her own home where objects of importance were strewn amongst each other competing for notice.

Eric's home was in a word contemplated. There was intent and purpose within every space. The rooms were not exaggeratedly oversized or minimally spaced; it all made sense in relation to the adjoining spaces. He had pointed out some of the more utilitarian spaces and the entrance to his underground layer before they ascended upstairs to the second level.

They had arrived in what would be Sookie's bedroom during her stay. For all intent and purposes it was the master bedroom to the house but it had obviously never been used. The finishes were impeccable and completely unscathed and Sookie swore she could faintly smell the paint fumes in the somewhat staid air.

"It's nice," she spoke as Eric set down her suitcase in the adjoining walk in closet.

Sookie had stayed uncharacteristically quiet as she took in the visual plethora that was the house tour. Eric somewhat relaxed at her spoken words for some unknown reason her appreciation of his house was important to him. He had smiled appreciatively in response.

Eric would hardly be considered a social vampire; his home was his sanctuary and had been carefully curated with an architect that was promptly glamoured upon completion. Pam had thus far been the only other being aside from a maid that had entered over the threshold once Eric had taken up residency here.

"My home is your home for as long as you are here," he offered. "Don't be shy about settling in." Eric spoke as Sookie stood peering out of the expansive glass facade over the back of the property. She turned her head over her shoulder whilst mouthing a quiet thank you as she returned her gaze in the direction of the fire pit in the yard.

"Shall I build us a fire?" he spoke after he had silently moved his body closely behind hers where he let his large hand rest on the small of her back. His gesture startled her already high strung nerves as she let out a small gasp. The bodily contact was not unwelcome to Sookie albeit a rare occurrence in her life. She had already decided for herself that their pretence would remain exactly that.

The prospect of being another stop on the Eric Northmann express was anything but enticing to her. It would surely complicate their working relationship, for that same reason Sookie had never responded to her former boss Sam's advances. Attraction alone would never be enough for her she had convinced herself, she would hold out for the luxury of something deeper and meaningful.

The casual business tone in which Eric had propositioned her for sex earlier in the evening was anything but that. She knew she was seeking a needle in a haystack when it came to her love life but she stubbornly refused any compromise. It was all or nothing for her. Eric and Sam had both offered her nothing for what she was seeking.

"A fire would be nice," she stammered out awkwardly.

Eric sought to reassure her by rubbing his hand along her back which only unnerved her more causing her to stiffen further. He grazed his nose over the delicate scent emanating from her hair as he spoke softly into her ear, "You know if we are to pass as lovers you need to be more comfortable with my caresses."

The way he had enunciated the word caresses had only further relegated shivers down her spine not from a lack of warmth rather an abundance of it. She was fast losing her footing. The speed at which her life had been turned upside down, the adjustment to a new environment and new people. No matter how comfortable she had found herself with it all rationally, she was in unchartered territories and she was desperately searching for her innate bravery.

Eric pulled her along downstairs by her hand and uncharacteristically she let herself be led. They stopped briefly by one of the built in hall closets from which he pulled a soft beige cashmere blanket still wrapped in a ribbon from when it was purchased. She wondered what a vampire would ever have use for a blanket for.

"Pam," Eric answered the unasked question which apparently was easily legible from her expression.

"Pam gets cold?" she asked confused. Eric gave a small chuckle in reply.

"No, Pam's a shopaholic. She said it goes with the house. I'm glad to have found a use for it or rather someone."

"Oh," came out her most inelegant reply. Eric settled her into a lounge chair by the fire pit draping her in the blanket as he set out to start the fire. Sookie happily left him to it, alone with her thoughts and the sounds of the Louisiana cicadas. At least there was something familiar in that.

He briefly disappeared and returned with a box of matches and a cup of warm cocoa. Apparently another purchase of Pam's. She thanked him kindly like Nanny Bitty would expect her to. She assumed to adjust to the persona that would be expected of her now. With the fire blazing and cackling in the cool night air she regarded the night's events that had brought to the place she sat in now.

"So this is what luxury feels like," she finally spoke after an endured silence. The cashmere grazing her skin was the softest material that had ever withheld her. The cocoa was intoxicatingly heady and rich, more so than she had ever tasted before. The fire was deliciously fragrant and warming. It scared her for the comfort she found in it, knowing it was a state of being that wouldn't last.

Eric was thrown by her statement. He was comfortable, certainly, but he did not perceive his lifestyle as overly sumptuous. A multitude of lifetimes had made him well aware of the pleasure in comfort and how time would transform luxuries into necessities. He wondered if he was doing right by Sookie Stackhouse in thrusting her into his world of vanities. He never considered the person who would stand beside him in six months. Would that person so humbly invite two stranded vampires into her home? Most likely deceiving himself he stood to think she would.

"The presence of good company is always a luxury," he replied after some contemplation.

**A/N: Thanks for reading once more. For those of you haven't seen it yet I dropped a new story to celebrate the 'magnificence' that is the final season. It's called **_**It's Already Gone**_** and it's a series of ten connected one shots with an E/S HEA to nurse the wounds the show is inflicting.**


	5. Chapter 5 - Hair

"_So this is what luxury feels like," she finally spoke after an endured silence. The cashmere grazing her skin was the softest material that had ever withheld her. The cocoa was intoxicatingly heady and rich, more so than she had ever tasted before. The fire was deliciously fragrant and warming. It scared her for the comfort she found in it, knowing it was a state of being that wouldn't last. _

_Eric was thrown by her statement. He was comfortable, certainly, but he did not perceive his lifestyle as overly sumptuous. A multitude of lifetimes had made him well aware of the pleasure in comfort and how time would transform luxuries into necessities. He wondered if he was doing right by Sookie Stackhouse in thrusting her into his world of vanities. He never considered the person who would stand beside him in six months. Would that person so humbly invite two stranded vampires into her home? Most likely deceiving himself he stood to think she would._

"_The presence of good company is always a luxury," he replied after some contemplation. _

Chapter 5 - Hair

Sookie wouldn't describe herself as afflicted with homesickness, not that she had ever experienced such. Staying in Eric's home had been more comfortable than she had ever known and she enjoyed the company. After her Gran's death she had been experiencing loneliness in a much more overt manner. Her telepathy had made her intrinsically lonely for much of her existence. It was hard to connect to another when one half of the relationship had access to all the other's thoughts and feelings. Her social circle was small despite her innate sense of kindness she was mostly scorn by her fellow townspeople. It hadn't taken long before Sookie had bit back with shored up defences to compensate those she had failed to build up around the mind in her younger years. She rather they be fearful of her biting personality than scorn her for something she had no choice or control over.

She had become unsure of how to act now. As far as she was concerned Eric and Pam would remain unaware of her extra ability. Were they to find out it would just be another anomaly to her personality. Perhaps they would perceive her as somewhat different but they were hardly normal themselves. The fact that their minds were silent to read would save her from the scrutiny she was otherwise accustomed to. Her lack of insight into their minds and an absence of necessity for her defensively grating personality left her at their mercy. She felt vulnerable and weak in their company. She had never felt more like a normal human. It unnerved her immensely.

Her loss of home ground had made her almost timid. Eric was relieved not to have to experience the brunt of her more abrasive side. He was, however, missing that innate fire of the little sparkplug that he had discovered in that dingy diner. Not that it would be considered helpful in the goal they were working towards. He just did not enjoy the emptiness she seemed to be exuding.

Sookie had proved to be an excellent student, quick on the intake of all things supernatural and the battlefield of its politics. She was naturally curious and this helped Eric in his teachings of her. Despite that, Eric felt she had remained hesitant, straining her to truly engage with him as a peer despite having the aptitude for it. He tried to engage with her congenially but his leering nature only seemed to turn her mute, causing Eric to refrain from it as much as possible. It was highly confusing to him. Eric was beginning to question how sensible it had been to keep her in his home as it now had started to make him uncomfortable and saw him retreating to his basement level often.

When Eric discussed his concerns with Pam she had little regard for it. She found an agreeable Sookie quite manageable. She didn't argue with her over the clothes and shoes she was zipped and shoved into. Even when it was quite apparent she loathed what she was forced to wear. Pam was not concerned for the girl in the clothes for she was working towards an end goal. She held little regard for the casualties along the way.

Granted a life size doll was a rather boring endeavour for Pam, she had sincerely hoped to find a kindred spirit in Sookie in her pursuit of all things fashion. For as short as Pam had known Sookie she had seemed to take a certain amount of pride in her appearance even if they were with ridiculous items like her red cowboy boots. Those boots had happily been relegated to the back of Sookie's ever filling closet ready to depart to good will. Eric had forbidden Pam to rid Sookie of the little items that she held there but Pam had been working stealthily to move them out of Eric's home one by one. They were positively clashing with her sensibilities not to mention the house.

Nearing the third week of her stay Sookie had settled into a routine and to Eric she seemed to be slowly letting some of her apathetic guard down. Upon waking he would find her in the library, his favourite room of the house and now apparently hers too. She would often be reading a book on the supernatural particularly on the fae. Her heritage had intrigued her but she never asked about it. Eric had wondered if her newly discovered status was the reason for her uneasiness but he assumed, quite rightly, it was just another mitigating factor to her demeanour.

After a polite greeting she would wordlessly follow him to the fire pit where he would wrap the cashmere blanket around her and set light to a fire. She would enjoy a cup of cocoa that he would prepare for her just like the first night and they would talk a little. It was mostly Eric who would speak of his past lifetimes, he tried desperately to make her laugh to get some reaction from her mostly at the expense of Pam's former antics. She always laughed but only incidentally was it out of true joy.

Upon Pam's arrival she would express her inevitable annoyance at Eric for exposing her stumbling nights of her early existence. Then the evening's classes would start for Sookie. Eric would depart to Fangtasia to oversee its exploitation and his sheriff duties whilst Pam concentrated on the finery of etiquette and social graces as well as Sookie's wardrobe.

When Pam finished up her portion of the evening's classes she would head over to relieve Eric from his obligations while Sookie enjoyed a warm meal. Eric had noticed Sookie appreciated cooking and eating her own dinner. He found he liked her lifted mood that would quickly dissipate after. Eric had been taking flight instead of his beloved car lately to be able to arrive home to catch Sookie devouring her food happily. Afterwards he would educate her on the relations and different types of the supernatural.

Before she retired to her bedroom she would have a light snack and bid another polite good night leaving a sighing Eric behind. He didn't know why he cared so much for her mental health. It had been distracting him from his plan to dissuade Pam from her wish of ultimate release, much to his displeasure. He convinced himself he 'cared' for her out of the interest in his own wellbeing within his home. Likewise he convinced himself this disconnected version of her was frustrating his attempt at bedding her. In reality he had lost somewhat of an interest in her as a possible sexual partner. Physically she was extremely appealing to him regardless of Pam's overworking of her natural allure. He missed the passion that she held and had ignited in him as he was desperately grappling for its return.

Eric had considered bringing Jason round for a visit to lift his sister's spirit or evoke some reaction from her that wasn't her polite and agreeable disposition. He knew that this wasn't the real Sookie Stackhouse. Jason had seemed to be rather effective in riling his sister up and was somewhat fearless of the possible verbal assault she could unleash. Considering how selective Eric was with those who gained entry to his home for now Jason was just not making the cut. Eric shivered- a rare occurrence in a vampire's existence- at the thought of Jason Stackhouse's monkey paws all over his house. No he had decided he would entertain the thought of Jason's aid when he felt that Sookie's reclusion to herself remained a stagnant condition.

He had decided the situation was not as dire yet and considering his child's lack of helpfulness in the circumstances he was leaning heavily on seeking his maker's council. He had known her in her own environment for a good period of time and perhaps he had insight to offer that would draw Sookie out of her guarded shell. His strained relationship to his maker was inhibiting him from picking up the phone and when he finally did he was informed by one of his 'disciples' that Master Godric had taken a vow of silence and was not to be reached until further notice. Eric's frustrated reply had resulted in his office's urgent necessity of a new phone, computer monitor and desk lamp along with a thorough clean up. Pam was none too pleased.

Frustrated he took off into the air after viciously drinking from a desperate fangbanger that had crossed his path towards his exit. Despite the pain the fangbanger had blissfully collapsed in the hallway thanking him profusely. It only sought to further disgust his opinion of humanity. Something that a small part fairy had so effectively restored mere weeks ago.

He had decided on a longer trajectory to cool off his inflamed temper until he felt his child's emotions boil through their shared bond. He considered it a delayed reaction to his own flare up this evening but he had shielded her from it. He sped homewards in concern for his child and his Sookie. In his panic he hadn't found the time to dwell on his annexation of the part fae in his house.

On arrival he heard screams emanating from the master bathroom upstairs. He had expected Pam to be having an outburst on account of the emotions he had experienced through the bond. Rather it was Sookie who seemed to be screaming almost incoherently.

Pam never shied away from a good fight and responded with equal fire much to Eric's consternation. For all his thousand years he was well aware that the most vicious of fights were fought amongst the female gender no matter what the species.

The door flew open at great speed startling Sookie who quickly sought to cover her already covered body among the mountains of bubble bath. Pam was unfazed as she had felt her maker approach and continued her own tirade.

"You are nothing but ungrateful Sookie Stackhouse. Have you thought to take in what surrounds you? Who surrounds you? You're just another worthless blood bag the only value you gain is in Eric's presence."

"Pamela!" Eric growled at her incensed. "Apologise now."

"No! I refuse to refute the apparent truth. She has you walking on eggshells in your own home when she should be worshipping the ground you walk on," Pam seethed as her anger was now directed towards her maker. "She has the audacity to refuse my instructions. I will not have my authority questioned."

"Apologise," he reiterated whilst forcefully grasping on to her arm just below her shoulder.

"No," she responded coolly convinced of her own justification.

"Apologise or consider your presence in my home unwarranted."

"Fine!" she screamed pulling herself from Eric's grip on her body. "You deal with her petulance."

Eric spared Sookie a quick glance who was heaving heavily in the bath tub desperately trying to settle her temper as he sped after Pam's departing form. He caught up with her as she was heading out the door where he brusquely held on to her.

"What transpired between you two?" he demanded of his progeny.

"It was nothing," she spoke dejectedly still reeling from her Master's defence of a human over her. "I don't even know, she just snapped. Forget it. I'll speak with you tomorrow."

Eric was well aware she was speaking far from the truth but decided that it was of little use to push her on it now. He nodded his assent before he watched her speed off into the night's darkness. He flew back up the stairs smelling the salty sweet tears of the little fairy in his bathtub. He landed beside her on the outside of the tub handing her a soft cloth for her tears.

"Are you alright?" he questioned softly in a tone he was sure he had never exercised even on Pam's darkest days.

"I'm so sorry Eric," she trembled in her speech, "I didn't mean to… I've been trying so hard. It was too much I couldn't take it anymore."

"Shh," he soothed. Eric took the cloth from her to dry the new tears that were falling whilst she pulled her knees closer to her body moving the foam mountains that surrounded her. When she appeared to have calmed down somewhat he moved the wet strands of her cascading blonde hair behind her ears and gave her a small smile.

"Better?"

She nodded with a small smile. No one had ever been able to comfort her aside from her beloved grandmother and with her death she never thought to revel in it ever again.

"Will you tell me what happened?"

She let out a small sigh at his request but started to speak nonetheless. "Pam was educating me on proper grooming habits. She…" Sookie sucked in a much needed deep breath. "She went too far."

Eric remained purposefully silent knowing it was the best way to pull a confession from someone. Sookie continued when the noiseless atmosphere unnerved her more than what she had to confess, "She demanded dominion of my hair. I need to retain some say over my own body."

"Pam wants to cut your hair?" Eric spoke slightly annoyed as he himself was luxuriating in the length of her locks between his fingers.

"Not this hair," she spoke delicately as she carefully fingered her own hair from his grasp as she hung her head somewhat embarrassed at the subject matter. Eric inwardly sighed at her retreat from his touch he wanted nothing more than caress her slick body as little of it as he could see. His outrage at Pam's boldness was however taking over. He lifted her head with his fingers as he spoke to her.

"You were right to refuse Pam, she has no say about a single hair on your body. She is here to teach you not command you," Eric returned sternly in a tone that was meant for Pam but landed with her. "She will not return until she has made amends to you and apologised for the way she spoke to you and myself."

She nodded at Eric in understanding but her spirits hadn't lifted any further much to his chagrin.

"Maybe you should just find someone else Eric. I don't know if I'm suited to do this."

"No," he spoke so quickly Sookie almost thought he was hurt by the thought of her departure although she deemed it unfathomable. "You have a natural grace and presence that will elevate me in your presence not the other way round. You have value on your own do not let anyone tell you differently."

"You're not mad at my outburst?" she asked uncertainly.

He shook his head in response whilst he spoke, "I wish you would express yourself more. I need you comfortable in your skin not a Stepford wife. You have my full permission to 'burst out' if Pam or I are out of line. I just ask you not to do it in public. It would be damaging to our positions to be seen challenged by a human with no repercussions."

"Thank you," she said ever so softly which further enticed his baser self.

"Come," he said as he stood with a large bath sheet spread between his expansive arms. To his great relief the fire he had feared so much before erupted from her eyes. He never thought he would be chanting in delight at its return.

"If you think I'm just magically gonna expose myself to you because you were nice to me for five seconds," she spat at him. "Then you've got another thing coming buddy."

He chuckled at her upsurge which only sought to further infuriate her with his mocking of her threat. "I'll close my eyes. I promise not to peek." There was little in the feigned innocence of his expression that gave her any cause to believe the words coming from his mouth.

She huffed at him, "Yeah right I bet those oversized fingers are crossed right now."

"I have some honour Sookie," he said slightly affronted displaying the uncrossed fingers on his hands. "If I say I won't peek I mean it."

"Fine," she said testily taking his offense as genuine. "Close your eyes."

"As you wish," he returned and did as asked. She eyed him wearily for a few seconds until she was certain his eyes had remained firmly closed. Had he been a lesser man, granted he was one most of the time, Eric would have easily snuck in a peek without her capable of realising. For some reason he felt the need to uphold himself for Sookie. She stepped out of the tub into the towel and subsequently into his embrace.

"Eric?" Sookie spoke when the embrace lasted a moment too long and had ventured into awkward territory. He opened his eyes and reluctantly let her go, still entranced in the comfort he found in her small body. She rushed towards her bedroom hoping to relieve herself of any further uncomfortable circumstances.

"Put on some comfortable clothes," he spoke after her fleeing form.

"Are we going out?" she asked whilst dressing faster than she ever thought possible fearful at how long his vow of honour would last.

"Would you like to go out?" he questioned out of genuine interest. Sookie had become very housebound despite Eric's encouragement for her to venture out during the day or for her dinner, to which he would gladly accompany her.

"No I think I've had enough excitement for one night," she responded as her head found the rounded neckline of her t-shirt. "What did you have in mind?"

"I thought we would retire to my bedroom," he spoke leeringly as he peered his head round the door into her dressing room where he disappointingly found her fully dressed.

"Fat chance asshole. I'm a lady," she snorted at him. In her simplicity surrounded by elegant clothes in full effect of her true self she was a rare sight to behold.

"Glad to see _you _back," he beamed at her.

"Glad to be back."


	6. Chapter 6 - Sleep

"_Would you like to go out?" he questioned out of genuine interest. Sookie had become very housebound despite Eric's encouragement for her to venture out during the day or for her dinner, to which he would gladly accompany her. _

"_No I think I've had enough excitement for one night," she responded as her head found the rounded neckline of her t-shirt. "What did you have in mind?" _

"_I thought we would retire to my bedroom," he spoke leeringly as he peered his head round the door where he disappointingly found her fully dressed._

"_Fat chance asshole. I'm a lady," she snorted at him. In her simplicity, surrounded by elegant clothes, in full effect of her true self she was a rare sight to behold. _

"_Glad to see you back," he beamed at her._

"_Glad to be back."_

Chapter 6 - Sleep

"I was serious about the bedroom," Eric spoke as they made their way downstairs.

"As was I," she responded with her sharpest tone, it was as lethal as any blade Eric had ever wielded. "Don't even try it, I'll go kicking and screaming."

"Trust me," he leered and halted both their progress down the steps. Their height differences now stood even as he spoke suggestively, "When you're in my bedroom for such reasons there will be no objections to your screaming."

The fire in her eyes was surfacing to a scorching glow and Eric relished at the sight of what he had been missing in his Sookie. He was however, well aware of the necessity to tamper it down before she erupted needlessly for a second time that night.

"What I am proposing," he said with a friendlier tone, "We order you some dinner and watch a movie in my bedroom. It has the better setup." Eric motioned towards the small TV in the seating area as his defence.

"Oh," she returned slightly taken aback. Despite his invitation to do so, she had never ventured down into the basement level beyond a small peak down the stairs. Eric never watched the TV in the living room so she had just assumed he never did.

"Ok. But you better keep your hands and your fangs to yourself," Sookie said pointedly. He simply nodded with the innocence of a good schoolboy, which she sceptically accepted.

They sent out for her order and Eric suggested they pick out the evening's feature while they waited its arrival. She obediently followed him down the other set of stairs that opened into a room holding a simple yet stylish lounge and small kitchenette.

It was clearly an area constructed for use in emergencies when one would be confined to this level. Like the rest of the house it had seen little use. Sookie was well aware that Eric often sought the comfort of the library instead. They continued down a long hallway covered in bookend grey veined white marble slabs. The hallway was illuminated by a blue glow that startled Sookie as she discovered its source.

"You have a window into your pool?" she asked mesmerized at the sight while she looked out towards the upper surface of the water. The waxing moon allowed her to see more than her mortal eyes would otherwise permit.

"Yes," he replied answering her rhetorical question. "When I was a child I enjoyed looking up at the world from underneath the water. This way I can do it without getting wet."

"It's beautiful." Though it applied to the sight, she found the beauty in the concept of the thought. To be able to enjoy looking outwards to the world like that as the first and last thing to see before going to bed.

Eric refrained himself from telling her the admirer of the view was far more beautiful in his eyes than the sight before them.

"This does close up during the daytime right?" she asked eying him warily.

He murmured a non-committal reply but it was far from an affirmative answer. Eric was unsure if she asked in regards to his safety or for the sake of her own modesty. He had thoroughly indulged his voyeuristic tendencies as she, blissfully unaware, made use of the pool on the rare warm days of the late fall in his time before sunset.

The large sheet of glass into the pool had been one of the more costly items of the house due to its expansive size and the fact that it was UV repellent. He had deemed it worth every penny since Sookie's arrival to his home.

Eric moved onto the bedroom and Sookie followed suit even though she would have quite contentedly continued to look up into the world through a thick sheet of water.

His bedroom was decorated in the same warm greys as the rest of the basement the marble slabs were replaced with the most luxurious carpet Sookie had ever placed her bare feet upon. The bed was large but not excessively so, adorned with crisp white linen and a dark grey textured comforter.

Above the bed a rectangular shape was extruded from the wall and at her continued observation of the cut out Eric had grabbed her hand and told to come along as they ventured beyond the wall into the small projection room. Sookie was completely taken aback by the old fashioned projector and the racks filled with film canisters.

"Where did you get all this from?" she marvelled as she ran her fingers over the different titles seeking out her favourites. Her penchant for old Hollywood films were represented in greater abundance than she could ever have hoped for.

"I used to own a cinema but progression leaves behind many victims, so I house them here."

"Well aren't you the Good Samaritan?" she mocked at his false modesty.

"Hardly," Eric whispered with a cool breath into the shell of her ear encouraging goose bumps to travel down her spine. He covered her dainty hand with his own in her attempt to adjust a canister in order to read the title.

"My Fair Lady?" he offered.

Sookie's hands had become stiff at his touch while she barely registered what he had spoken to her. "What?"

"My Fair Lady, is that what you wish to see?"

"Erm. No," she said shaking her head and herself out of her stupor. "I always preferred the play to the musical and the situation seems too familiar now. Although I do like Audrey Hepburn in it."

"You are not a sucker for happy endings then?"

"I am, but sometimes they can be more anticlimactic than a realistic ending," Sookie explained finding her footing again in the cramped space. "Shaw's play was truer to the original myth I respected that he insisted on an unpopular ending."

"Galatea must not return to her original state as she was," he deduced from her reasoning. "Eliza had to embrace her emancipation from Higgins."

"Exactly," she returned, unsure whether she was still speaking of Eliza or herself.

"Your food is here," Eric announced as his acute sense of hearing picked up the distant sounds of an approaching vehicle. He sped off to take delivery of her meal before she could even blink or make a reply. When she appeared upstairs Eric had already laid out her meal upon the dining table and the enticing smells had her stomach grumbling appreciatively.

"Thank you," she smiled at him before she dug in with gusto.

"Eric don't you need to eat? Or drink I guess," Sookie asked as he simply sat at the table with her watching fascinated at every movement her hands seemed to make with the cutlery before it all disappeared into her mouth. He liked to stare at her lips when they were talking but this was captivating on an entirely different level.

Sookie had seen the stock of donor blood in his fridge and freezer but had yet to see him drink any of the ample supply.

"I already ate this evening," Eric said with a slight grimace that she couldn't place in accordance to the action. It was in memory of the desperate fangbanger that had gotten off on the violence of the feed.

Considering Eric hardly ever left Sookie's side when he was at home Sookie had deduced that it must have been a fresh feed and she didn't really want to think of the circumstances and extras such feedings entailed.

"Has it become easier you know being out in the open?" she probed genuinely curious as she swallowed another bite of her own.

"Yes and no," he returned honestly. "It is expedient that I don't have to hide myself and my businesses. There is no longer the constant threat of exposure. I would be lying if I said I didn't revel in the admiration of the fangbangers with our initial coming out. It's what brought about Fangtasia. I did not realise in advance what our presence in human society would really mean." Eric had spoken his last sentence somewhat dejectedly. It surprised Sookie for as short as she knew Eric there was little besides the subject of his maker that ever gave way to such feelings.

"How so?"

"I had expected a backlash like the Fellowship of the Sun, fear is a natural reaction to the unknown," Eric explained. "It is the culture of adoration of our kind that threw me off, even though I have helped cultivate it. It was flattering at first but it quickly turned into something insipid. The fangbangers are just looking for the next bite, riding the momentary wave of euphoria, indiscriminate of who or what bites them. We have become a means to an end."

"Like a drug," Sookie observed. "Making you just as disposable as the fangbangers themselves. I'm sorry for that Eric."

"Why would you be sorry?" he questioned wondering if he had bitten her in some distant past. However, he knew had her soft skin ever met the sharp end of his fangs it would be a memory that would not simply have passed like all the other anonymous bites.

"It's not exactly a nice representation of humanity to be acquainted with," she offered finishing up meal. "I hope you realise not everyone is like that."

"They come seeking death we are it," Eric surmised. "As long as one is aware it is a mutual exchange of needs, albeit a tainted one, there are no feelings lost. It does make one reminisce of the old days when a meal was still a conquest though." A wink of the eye was expressed her way which met the retaliation of her protruding tongue.

"Always looking for a chase," she said good humouredly while shaking her head.

"Have you decided on a movie yet?" he asked changing the subject as she stood to clear her dishes.

"Yes," she returned pleased with her choice. "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

"Ah, one of Pam's favourites," he noted.

"I should have figured considering her status as a clothes whore."

"Try not to call her that in her presence," Eric chuckled as they moved themselves downstairs again. "Fashion is her lifeline, clothes are from Walmart. She doesn't 'do' Walmart. It is couture, prêt-à-porter, pieces, gowns and a whole lexicon of terms only her vaulted mind can archive."

"The first step is acknowledging you have a problem," Sookie quipped.

"Pam's version of an intervention would end up a blood bath," he snickered back as they entered the bedroom again.

"She'd probably use it as an excuse to buy more clothes," Sookie volleyed back as she carefully installed herself on the bed covering her legs and feet with the cashmere blanket that she had become accustomed to carrying around Eric's house. After he finished setting up the projection equipment he joined beside her, somewhat closer than she was comfortable with.

"Don't worry I don't bite," Eric chortled out with mischievous eyes. She huffed unbelievingly at that. "Well not unless you ask," he said as he continued to laugh at her.

"I must have missed the audition signs for a pin cushion," she returned with a roll of her eyes. "Ask all you like buster, never gonna happen."

"Only time will tell," he winked at her.

"Luckily you have plenty of that," she retorted much to his amusement. He used his expansive wingspan to pull her closer forcing her to rest her head upon his chest. She shifted herself away in protest.

"We already discussed this," he spoke down to her admonishingly, "You have to get used to my touch. Try it, you might actually like it." He finished with, in Sookie's opinion, a far too satisfied grin.

"That's what I'm worried about," Sookie mumbled to herself hoping he had not heard her unintended vocalised thoughts. However, vampire hearing would never grant her that courtesy. Eric chose not to react and leave her wondering as the chords of Moon River started to play and Audrey Hepburn stepped out of her New York yellow cab.

oOOoOOoOOo

Sookie had fallen asleep near the end of the movie despite her adjusted vampire schedule. The emotional toll of the night's earlier events were expressed in her slow and rhythmic breathing. Despite the age of the old projector the control of it had been completely digitized. Using a tablet that controlled every electrical part of the house Eric switched off the movie's ending credits and watched the projection screen disappear into the ceiling as silence filled the room. He adjusted the lighting so it was comfortable to his sensitive eyes but dark enough for her to sleep comfortably.

He looked at the warm body snuggled up against him. Never had anything with a beating heart entered his bedchamber after construction had completed. Pam had entered it on the requisite house tour but never since.

His child never understood his insular tendencies. She accepted the security implications necessary during vulnerable day light hours. To her that was what glamour was for; Pam was perhaps a little too reliant on its use. If it hadn't been for Eric's maker command to not glamour Sookie, the evening would have most likely started very differently. Eric didn't even want to think what Pam had in mind in terms of grooming.

He liked those hairs on a female's body. It gave him something to pet, to tantalise, a contrast of textures. Eric even missed the hair of the underarms sometimes. Mostly since it had just seemed to disappear, not because he had been particularly fond of it.

He hovered his fingers over the soft blond hairs of Sookie's forearms making the slightest of contact with her golden skin. He wondered if these hairs would disappear next with all the others, time was a strange thing to a vampire after all. Humans made themselves believe the strangest things about hygiene and beauty throughout the ages. He found no beauty in a woman who pretended to be a child.

Beauty had nothing to do with pretence, to him it was a representation of honesty, of nature's bounty not its embellishment.

The small but perfectly formed being beside him was an example of that. To most humans she would seem ordinary. Pretty perhaps but she would be marked as slightly 'off'. No human would recognise the great beauty she possessed, what he recognised resided inside. It was connected to her inner light, shining brighter than he had seen in a millennium. The sun had been absent in his existence but not from his mind and Eric was sure she rivalled its intensity.

Of all the species he knew, humans were the most disconcerted with the unusual. The exotic was nothing more than the alluring side of fear. Humans preferred the comfort of the known. Supernaturals in contrast abhorred the normal, the average. When time was not a limiting factor the ordinary had little to offer. It was the find of the unusual that kept you pushing through the seemingly endless years.

He wondered if Sookie was such an interlude in his many years, helping him onto his next. Reluctantly he had signed onto Pam's scheme. She had shown him a determination he didn't think his child was capable of. He had to admit that part of it was that beckoning light that was Sookie.

He agreed to a bet he wanted to lose as much as he wanted to win. He wanted his cake and eat it too. Something humans told their tea cup versions in warning all the time. It didn't apply to vampires. Yes there were rules but not many applied to an ancient vampire in a position of power. Cakes were handed to you whether you wanted them or not.

This was different, the warmth beside him was something beyond a physical feeling. He made up his mind not to wake her. For the first time in his vampire existence he would let a human sleep next to him. Well mostly human.

He remained cautious and scanned the room for anything that could work as a makeshift stake. Satisfied he found none he slowly pulled the covers from underneath her body and pulled the plush duvet over them both. He removed her cashmere blanket and placed it by the foot of the bed.

It was still many hours till dawn but he knew this is where he would remain until he woke again at sunset. He wrote a note instructing her where she could find food if she wanted to stay downstairs and a temporary password to leave the basement level.

He settled himself on his back and carefully kicked off his sweatpants and tossed them in a corner. Eric moved his body marginally so he could continue to experience the warmth that radiated from her. His nose took in her unique perfume. It was an exquisite scent; he bathed himself in it wishing he could bottle it for eternity's sake. Things as inimitable as this were unfortunately often a blip in time, never meant to be kept. It insured that you could recognise it as such for the next time it comes around.

He monitored the depth of her sleep and when he was certain his attentions wouldn't wake her, he darted out his tongue, over her wrist to her palm where he could sample the strongest concentration of her taste.

"That tickles," she giggled. If he had a heartbeat at this point the organ would surely have skipped a beat. He calmed when he realised she was talking in her sleep. It shouldn't have surprised him, he had come across this before many times. Humans were especially useful informants when they conversed in this state, often more effective than glamour.

"Sookie?" he tried.

"Mmmm," Sookie hummed in response.

"Sookie do you like living in my house?" he asked tentatively.

"It's very nice. Your house," she answered. "I'm scared I'll break something."

"Do you like me Sookie?"

"You're very pretty," she gushed with half a murmur. He chuckled a little at the choice of adjective. The feminine never had caused insult or threat to his virility but in his thousand years no one had ever described him as pretty.

"You scare me," she said in the tiny voice.

"Because I'm a vampire?" Eric asked stroking soft the hairs on her forearm again.

"No," she replied assuredly. "You would never hurt me."

"Why do I scare you Sookie?"

"You're my boss," she offered as an explanation.

"Were you scared of the shifter too?"

"No Sam's a big ol' pussy cat," Sookie said. At this Eric had to desperately contain himself from barking out in laughter and risk waking her. "He likes me, but I only like rubbing his furry belly. He thinks I don't know when he's pretending to be Tina."

The conversation was taking a weird turn and Eric still hadn't gotten the answers he was looking for despite the hilarious images he was conjuring up at the expense of the shifter.

"Do you think I like you, Sookie?"

"No," she sighed. "You just want to have sex with me. I don't want to have sex with you."

"Why not?" he asked as he ran his nose over the crown of her hair inhaling the scent of the remnant sun.

"You won't love me," the tiny voice spoke again.

"Is that what you want?" the vampire probed. "Love?"

"Everyone wants love," she replied with determination. It was so strongly present Eric feared she might wake from its intensity.

"Even vampires?" he queried even though he had not meant to voice his inner thoughts out loud.

"Especially vampires," Sookie sighed.

She didn't respond to his interrogations anymore after that and truthfully he didn't know what to ask of her anymore. Eric questioned himself to what he was doing instead. He could offer her the world but what she asked of him was the one thing he did not think he could ever come to possess. He wasn't capable of anything beyond familial love, not even in his human days.

If he were a sensible man he'd lift her out of his bed and put a halt to his consuming infatuation. Eric was sure that was all this was, a fascination with the undiscovered. He didn't move her regardless of his rationale.

He pulled her body closer to his instead and repeated her answers over and over again inside the confines of his mind. Picking apart at each sentence and every word till all that was left were the individual letters.

Finally he understood, under that tough exterior she was a romantic. He should have known by her choice of film. She wasn't unlike Holly Golightly, an introvert playing an extrovert. This wasn't merely a job for her, excelling beyond expectation, this is how Sookie lived every day of her life.

A part of the puzzle that made up her whole had fit into place and with that thought he finally succumbed to his day rest, wondering what the next night would reveal.

**A/N:** **For those of you who have found my stories through my winning entry for Sephrenia's writing challenge, **_**In Memorium**_** and **_**Memento Mori**_**, I am happy to announce it has found a continuing story. I will start posting it from Tuesdays onwards under the title **_**From Time Immemorial. **_


	7. Chapter 7 - Balms

**A/N: This is where things start venturing off course to the Pygmalion inspiration. I warn you stuff gets a little weird… I'll give an extra warning for those squeamish about blood but then I ask, why are you reading stories about vampires…**

_If he were a sensible man he'd lift her out of his bed and put a halt to his consuming infatuation. Eric was sure that was all this was, a fascination with the undiscovered. He didn't move her regardless of his rationale. _

_He pulled her body closer to his instead and repeated her answers over and over again inside the confines of his mind. Picking apart at each sentence and every word till all that was left were the individual letters. _

_Finally he understood, under that tough exterior she was a romantic. He should have known by her choice of film. She wasn't unlike Holly Golightly, an introvert playing an extrovert. This wasn't merely a job for her, excelling beyond expectation, this is how Sookie lived every day of her life. _

_A part of the puzzle that made up her whole had fit into place and with that thought he finally succumbed to his day rest, wondering what the next night would reveal._

Chapter 7 - Balms

Eric opened his eyes to the relative darkness of the room. The only illumination coming from a dimmed bedside lamp he had left on for Sookie's sake. The warmth of her body was still lingering on his skin even though he could feel she had left the bed not too long ago.

"You're up early," a small voice by the door said.

"Yes, at my age I can wake earlier than most."

"Vampires, full of surprises," Sookie mused. "I was just getting myself a drink can I get you something?"

"Yes."

"What can I get you?" she asked with kind eyes. Before she had managed to blink he had blurred in front of her, making her body jump against the back of the wall with his sudden appearance.

"You," he said with a consuming hunger.

"Eric," she exhaled with a breathy moan.

"Sookie," he replied almost tenderly to her curious gaze.

He brought his forehead down to hers, his nose resting against the slope of hers. Taking in the scent that was uniquely her, that was permeating the stale air and every piece of linen on his bed. Her blood was laced with anticipation; it was like carbonation to a vampire, heightening the already tantalising flavour that she seemed to exclusively exude.

"I want you," he spoke so low the vibrations were palpable in the air. "Yield to me Sookie."

"I'm yours to keep," she replied with lidded eyes, her body shivering at the sensation of his cool touch on her skin.

His lips found hers, soft and ample to his strong and urgent ones. His hands cupped her face not willing her to leave him, if only to assure himself she wanted this as much as he. Eric urged her to open her mouth to him wishing he could swallow her whole. Only when she granted him access did his hands move further down. One hand held the back of her head firmly deepening the kiss that was consuming them both. His other hand explored the curvature of her body until it finally rested on the small of her back pulling her in closer to his body.

Sookie moaned in appreciation, their kiss becoming sloppy with the diverted attentions as she relished in the feeling of his hard body meeting her soft welcoming one. She was so warm to him, near scalding, filling him with heat he never before possessed from the inside.

He reluctantly gave her pause to breathe. Sookie's heavy panting was making her breasts heave with a fiery flush. He wanted to see them, he wanted to see that erratic heart beat under her skin between them. Without pause her t-shirt was ripped down the middle. At the reveal of the white lace bra that sat underneath a growl was emitted before it too met the same treatment. Soon it was lying like scraps on the floor.

"Eric," she cried as the cool air hit her exposed skin and his hands traced the newly exposed patches of skin. Pebbling her nipples at his attentions. He suckled them softly in turn, his tongue tracing over them till their sensitivity became almost painful with his attentions. He moved his lips up her body finding her neck while leaving a trail of wet kisses behind. The combination of hot and cool sensitised her skin causing it to break out in goose bumps with his caresses.

"Let me feel you," she asked tugging at the hem of his t-shirt. Eric had it removed before she managed to finish her sentence and she let out a gasp at the small gust of wind it caused. Her hands explored over the hard planes of his body, tracing it to memory. She kissed every knick, every scar from his human life as if they were the marks that defined him. When she glanced up he took her lips for his own again. Their tongues drawn to each other like the opposite ends of a magnet.

She pulled herself from his lips again when the reserve of air was depleted from her lungs. Sookie held her cheek against the scruff of his. Breathing in. Breathing out. Never had a rhythm sounded so right to him. She moved down licking him with the softened tip of her tongue from the bottom of his neck up to his ear, where she placed a soft kiss to his lobe. From what she had felt so far it appeared to be the softest piece of skin on his entire ancient body. When she sought out its twin companion on the other side her exploration moved south till she reached the crook of his neck.

Sookie looked up to his eyes intently as if she were asking permission. Without thought he simply nodded his consent. For what he was unsure. She started with a soft kiss, he let out a contented purr as he awaited her next move before she bit down on him. Hard.

Startled by the sudden violence he jerked his upper body back demanding distance between them. A piece of flesh ripped away with his movement where her teeth had held fast. His blood gushed out in a torrent covering her breasts as it flooded down between them. He delighted in the sight of her bloody mouth holding the pink piece of flesh firmly between her full lips as blood trickled down her chin.

"Yes," he hissed as the blood continued to move down his own chest. "Take me inside of you. Swallow me whole."

Still startled about how a piece of flesh was resting between her teeth she responded without a thought. He watched her tilt her head back slightly as she carefully released the tension of her jaw before she let the raw meat slide down her tongue and throat inside of her. She angled her head back down again her tongue running over her lips in satisfaction with the taste of him. Before she could wipe the stray blood away from her chin his lips had locked back onto hers. He savoured the taste of himself mingled with hers. His fangs descended, piercing her lips and he sucked greedily as she whimpered at the pleasure and pain of the assault.

Fangs still out, he moved down her body lapping at his blood on her tanned body. The incisors scraped at her delicate skin opening up thin lines of vermillion. He watched mesmerized as her blood bubbled from the taut restraint of her skin before it merged with his to which he greedily lapped it up with the broad strokes of his tongue.

"Again," she mewled shivering with the feeling.

He groaned in approval and continued till she was clean of him and a mere haze of red remained on her sticky skin. She traced her finger over the impact of her inflicted wound on his neck. Blood continued to travel out but by now it had slowed to a treacle.

"You're still bleeding," she whispered with concern.

"Kiss it and make it better," he replied hoarsely.

She latched on and sucked at the blood lavishing the wound with her tongue's discriminating attention. She growled with the loss of the ancient nectar that was his life force as the wound closed in on itself.

Her eyes were hot with anger as he chuckled at her ire.

"Greedy," he said contented. "I like it."

"Shut up and kiss me," she huffed. He continued his tongue induced attack as he pulled her body closer upon his. Her back was firmly planted on the wall as he shoved his straining erection to her hot core only separated by the two thin stretches of cotton between them.

"Eric," she whimpered as she desperately sucked in some much needed oxygen.

"Eric," she repeated as he continued to kiss along her jawline.

"Eric," she screamed. "Stop."

He opened his eyes.

Shocked he looked at her frightened form beneath him in his bed. She was as fully clothed as when they went to sleep. He quickly pulled his rubbing body of off hers. Free from his grasp she ran out of the room. The sun was already up so she was able to flee from the basement level with a heartbeat that was deafening. He would forever associate the sound of it with fright and shame.

It was a dream. He didn't dream, not since his human days. Without fail he would close his eyes at dawn and woke as if no time had passed. Fear overtook him at what had transpired as he looked down at the bulge straining his underwear.

It was something he loathed during the ages. Taking from the unwilling and now he had joined the ranks of those he despised. He had to make sure she was all right but the fear of what he had caused made him stop for a pause. He willed away the offending member and pulled on his track pants.

He smelt her tears all through the house intensifying in her room. She hadn't bothered to close any door behind her in her haste. He found her in the closet stuffing her few possessions into a suitcase.

As soon as she became aware of his presence she screamed for him to go away her voice as shaky as the knees she stood on. Trembling with desperation not to shed more tears.

He held his hands up in a sign of surrender indicating he meant her no harm. "Sookie, I wish to apologize."

"Leave me alone!" she shrieked as her hot tears started to flow against her wishes. "I want nothing to do with you."

"Sookie please let me explain," he pleaded at a safe distance but firmly in her line of view.

"No," she shouted out at a deafening volume. Neither one was prepared for what happened next as a giant ball of electric current released from her hands scorching the clothing around her before firmly landing on Eric's chest launching him through the air. His heavy form crashed through a large sheet of the glass facade onto the neatly manicured garden lawn.

She ran after him looking down through the broken glass at his unconscious body lying in the grass. Fear and adrenaline overtook her at the sight of what her hands had caused. She sped down the stairs and out the door as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Eric, please be okay," she begged as her hands clutched at his lifeless frame before Pam flew in throwing her of his body landing her a few feet away with a loud thump. Pam growled at her in warning with fully descended fangs.

"Do not harm her Pam," Eric said, now conscious of the events around him while his body remained paralysed.

"Who did this to you?" Pam demanded. When Eric remained silent and Pam with the whispers of Sookie's tearful apologies she had her answer. She leapt up stalking towards the crumpled form of the small blonde with her supernatural speed.

"Pamela, as your maker I command you, do not to harm Sookie," Eric ordered.

"Define harm," she seethed frozen in her intended motion.

"Do not touch her," he warned. "Not a single _hair_ on her body."

"She attacked you," Pam said in outrage.

"Sookie was defending herself," he replied as his nerve endings were slowly buzzing back to life. He groaned a little at the sensation, it fucking hurt.

"I'm calling Ludwig," Pam decreed, her worry now residing with her maker's health instead of reprisal.

"Not necessary," he retuned with a grunt that betrayed the statement. "I'll be fine soon enough. Get me some blood."

"I'm not leaving you alone with her," she replied pointedly.

"She will not harm me," he countered. "Don't make me command you."

"Fine," she huffed before turning her scowl towards Sookie. She menacingly growled mere inches from her sobbing face, "That command won't keep you safe if you harm him."

Sookie nodded meekly in understanding before the female vampire sped off in search of heated blood. "Eric, I'm so sorry," Sookie sobbed as she crawled over beside him not daring to touch him. "I don't know what happened."

"Don't apologise for defending yourself Sookie," he said with a small sigh to mask another jolt of pain. "I will recover soon enough."

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked feeling utterly helpless.

"There is but I won't ask you that. Not after what I did to you tonight," he breathed out. "Sookie I've never felt so ashamed at my actions. How can I make this up to you?"

"Tell me," she requested with a meek voice.

"I was dreaming of you, of us. I'm not supposed to dream, I didn't realise… I'm so sorry."

"No, tell me how to make it better," she said.

"I don't deserve it," he returned dejected.

"It will make me feel better too," she offered softly.

"You should have the ability to heal me. But I deserve to carry this pain." Eric watched intently as her sorrowed face changed to one he had come to know well. It was one that demanded no arguments. He let out a heavy groan knowing she would not heal him but told her how to anyway, "You lay your heart over mine and breathe into my mouth."

"This will make you better?" she asked with furrowed brows.

"Yes," he exhaled as he once more tried to breathe through the debilitating ache.

"Ok," she said determined.

"Sookie you don't have to."

"I want to," she replied her knees already on either side of his body careful not to rest her weight on him. Her hands roamed over his chest to determine where his heart once beat.

"Here?" she enquired and he replied his affirmation. She laid down her chest upon his slightly off centre so her beating heart would lay atop of his. She rested the lower half of her body over his waist so she could angle his head towards hers.

"Wait till you feel the current," he instructed from memory. Soon she felt the electrical pulses, gentle and warm radiating from her body into his.

"Now?" she asked as she gently pushed the hairs from his forehead.

"Yes," he replied as the pulses danced through his body soothing the aches he hadn't felt in over a thousand years. The sensation was titillating and brought a relief no medicine could bring. She moved her lips just over his and inhaled deeply through her nose. With an encouraging nod from Eric she carried on and a white glow surrounded her body to an almost blindingly bright light. She pressed her lips onto his and exhaled every bit of air from her lungs into his.

Pam stood frozen in shock clutching the pair of warmed bags of blood in her hands as she watched the creature before her bathe Eric in the healing light. She had heard of a fairy's curing but never observed it before. The light grew brighter and through the bond to her maker she stood witness to the sensation. The light burst into an arresting brightness only to dissipate when the air surrounding them cackled with electrical pulses. Pam fell incapacitated to the soft ground in euphoria. It was something beyond any orgasm or high she had ever experienced in her long existence.

"Thank you," Eric said as he came back to himself. The words were minute in comparison to the gratitude he felt.

She remained lying atop his chest a moment longer as she inhaled in the scent of the freshly cut grass around them until her breathing steadied. She got onto her knees again and he moved his body out from under her in succession before helping her up onto her feet.

"I should go," Sookie said as she pulled her hands from his. "I'll pay for the repairs."

"Sookie please let us talk," he pleaded. "Do not leave like this. I want to. No I _need_ to make this right."

Her knees were still trembling with the evening's events. Sookie regarded him and his words carefully. "Ok," she acceded. "Let me get my things and we'll talk before I leave."

He nodded disheartened at her continued resolve to leave. Eric knew, however, that he really couldn't expect more of her kindness after his actions. They walked slowly side by side with a respectable distance between them until they reached Pam still hazy from her high, rocking her body on the wet grass in her finest couture.

"Sookie, you can harm my maker anytime if I get to experience that at the end of it," she exhaled out with an uncontained moan, her cheeks rosy with bliss.

"I'll keep that in mind," Sookie replied looking down at the strange sight of the giddy vampire. "Goodbye Pam." She continued to walk into the house alone seeking the stairs to her former bedroom.

"Why is she saying goodbye Eric?" Pam asked as her body settled itself again. "What did you do to her?" she fumed, her earlier fury now directed at her maker while she found her steady feet again.

He sighed uncomfortably before regaling what had caused the faeling to defend herself. "You dreamed?" she asked with astonishment. "Eric that's not possible is it?"

"It was after sunset when I woke, perhaps it happened during down time," he gave a tiny shrug unsure where to place explanation. "We have to let her go Pam, she has already given more than she should."

"Have you ever experienced something like that before?" Pam questioned while reliving the aftershocks.

"No. Have you?"

She shook her head indicating the same reply. "That was better..."

"Than sex," he agreed as they held an identical satiated gaze on the small part fairy walking up the stairs. In unison they pierced their respective blood bags with their fangs suckling away at the rare AB negative blood type as if humans indulging a cigarette post coitus.

"We can't let her leave, if only for that."

"Pamela this is her choice," Eric said sternly, reasserting his role as her maker. "Respect it."

"Let me speak with her first," she offered greedily draining the last drops from the bag. "I need to apologise for yesterday. Let me convince her to stay."

"You wish to apologise on your own accord," he pondered aloud picking up the plastic bag his progeny carelessly dropped to the ground. "This is very out of character for you."

"No it's not," she spoke defiantly. "Did she or did she not come out of her shell with you last night?"

Eric now recognised Pam's ploy for what it was. Despite the evening's dampening events he couldn't help but chuckle with the discovery of it. "I forget you spend all your time with human women. You play them better than the violin."

"Always happy to oblige to your musical tastes, Master," she smugly retorted with a mocking curtsy.

oOOoOOoOOo

"Sookie?" Pam said softly as she knocked on the charred bedroom door. "I'd like to apologise for my behaviour."

"You were protecting your maker," she sighed. "What's there to apologise for?"

"Well you're right about that," Pam acknowledged with a righteous glint to her blue eyes. "But I shouldn't have tried to force the issue of your body hairs. I wasn't going to do it. I needed to see how far I could push you. Your natural resistance was gone."

"Apology accepted," Sookie said curtly. "It was fun while it lasted."

"Sookie. You hardly gave it a chance," Pam alleged sternly. "You just endured it all. Start fresh do it on your terms."

"I don't know if I can Pam," she breathed out, hanging her head in shame. "Eric. I… I hurt him."

"And then you gave him the best experience of his life," Pam pointed out. "Hell even mine and I only got the second hand version."

Sookie remained quiet dabbing at a small tear in the corner of her eye.

"I'm not going to excuse his behaviour. No one should wake up to a man dry humping you like a cat in heat," she said. "Unfortunately I speak from experience."

Sookie winced at the description forcing the memory back to the forefront of her mind. Unfortunately it didn't stand on its own.

"It wasn't him Sookie. He was under a spell or something," Pam continued. "I've never felt him so dejected and ashamed through our bond. He won't ever force you Sookie. If you prefer you can stay at my house or one of Eric's other safe houses. Don't throw in the towel just yet."

"I'll consider it after I talk to him," she conceded after taking a contemplative silence. Sookie knew running away was the easiest choice she could make but felt that she owed to him and herself to at least hear him out.

"Better than nothing, I suppose," Pam shrugged before turning to the door. When her eyes raked past the closet she screeched at the sight of carnage of that had left none of the luxurious fabrics and leathers unscathed.

"I'm sorry for that Pam," Sookie offered following her gaze.

"It's not like you liked any of it," she said and then continued with a little more glee, "If you stay I can buy you all new things. Perhaps something you like for once."

"You knew?" she asked shocked.

"Of course," Pam said. "Do you really think I would push you to wear the most unflattering outfits available because you liked them so much? Forget a career in poker Sookie. You'd be broke before you started."

oOOoOOoOOo

"Are you ok?" Sookie asked as she sat down in the chair across from him in the library. It was a familiar place for them both. In the weeks that she had resided in Eric's house they had naturally assumed assigned seats near the fireplace.

"I should be the one asking you that," Eric replied gently not wishing to startle her further.

"I'm fine. I think," she said. "Can all vampires do that?"

"Do what?" he asked.

"The glowy healing thing."

"That was you Sookie," he answered. "I think it's fair to say you are most decidedly other,"

"Yes," she acquiesced as she looked at her hands remembering the surge of power erupting from them. "I didn't know I was capable of that. It never happened before. Am I a fairy?"

"I think it's safe to say you are part fae with an unusually strong spark," he explained. "I don't remember ever being so debilitated by a fae's light force."

"I'm so sorry," she offered again as the waters that glistened the orbs of her eyes threatened to spill over once more.

He moved towards her kneeling by the arm of her padded chair. "Sookie. Please stop apologising. You had no control over it."

"I hurt you," she said still looking him over for any remaining signs of damage.

"You healed me too."

"Did you have no control over it too?" she asked.

"Vampires don't dream Sookie. I haven't had a dream since my human days. I only woke when I heard you say stop," he took a deep sigh. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"I woke to you kissing along my jaw," she said. "You were rubbing your chest against me. I don't know what happened before that." It wasn't the actual physical actions that had put the fright into her, it was the memories that surfaced with them.

"Sookie I don't deserve your forgiveness but I offer you my apologies regardless."

"I guess we both had no control over our actions tonight," she sighed finding a strange sense of solace in that. "I accept your apology."

"Please consider staying," he pleaded again. "This means a lot to Pam."

"Just Pam?" Sookie asked raising her brow like she had seen both vampires do so often. "I thought this whole charade was to make you look good."

"It means a lot to me too," he admitted with a small smile. "If you prefer you can stay elsewhere."

"What's the point," she said shaking her head. "Like you said before I have to get used to your touch to be a convincing companion."

"You've made up your mind then," he concluded.

"Yes," she replied, nodding her head as it had offered a bit of clarity for the first time all evening. "I know what I want to do."

"Will you let me drive you home?"

"No," Sookie returned as she watched the disappointment settle on his face. "I'm not going anywhere."

She swore she could see excitement hidden behind his guarded eyes. "You are certain?" She nodded in assurance. He could barely contain the relief that he held at the sight.

"Perhaps you would like to take me to dinner," she said with a small smile. "I haven't eaten since last night."

"What are you in the mood for?" he asked pulling her from his seat. Grateful she allowed her hand to be taken in his.

"Know what?" she thought aloud, startled by her own craving that her hunger had rendered. "I could really go for a rare slab of beef."

**A/N:** **For those of you who have found my stories through my winning entry for Sephrenia's writing challenge, **_**In Memorium**_** and **_**Memento Mori**_**, I am happy to announce it has found a continuing multi chapter story. The first two chapters are already up, it's called **_**From Time Immemorial. **_


	8. Chapter 8 - Recalibrate

"_You've made up your mind then," he concluded._

"_Yes," she replied, nodding her head as it had offered a bit of clarity for the first time all evening. "I know what I want to do."_

"_Will you let me drive you home?"_

"_No," Sookie returned as she watched the disappointment settle on his face. "I'm not going anywhere."_

_She swore she could see excitement hidden behind his guarded eyes. "You are certain?" She nodded in assurance. He could barely contain the relief that he held at the sight._

"_Perhaps you would like to take me to dinner," she said with a small smile. "I haven't eaten since last night."_

"_What are you in the mood for?" he asked pulling her from his seat. Grateful she allowed her hand to be taken in his._

"_Know what?" she thought aloud, startled by her own craving that her hunger had rendered. "I could really go for a rare slab of beef."_

**Chapter 8 - Recalibrate**

"What made you change your mind?" Eric asked sipping at his blood concoction. He refrained from expressing the horrific taste of what he assumed cardboard tasted like. No matter how many blends they combined it all tasted like shit to him.

"I gave you my word that I would do this," she shrugged. "Pam was right. I wasn't putting in my best effort. I was merely sitting out the ride. If I was going to walk away from this then I needed to know it was not from my lack of effort."

"The way I acted had nothing to do with your effort. You could have walked away without an ounce of shame," Eric said still carrying much of the negative emotion himself.

"Eric do me a favour," she asked.

"Anything," he answered determined. He'd never given that much leeway to a request before. Conditions were the margin in which he had manoeuvred throughout his entire existence. It was the first time that guilt over his actions had relented his caution of self. That should have alarmed him but it didn't.

"Stop guilt tripping yourself about this. As far as I'm concerned we're even. We both lost our control through no fault of our own," she spoke with determined clarity. "Yes, I would have preferred not to have woken the way I did, but honestly the patrons of Merlotte aren't any less handsy when they have too much to drink."

It's what she hated about the inebriated; their minds became foggy and unpredictable. She had unfortunately had more than one frustrating run in and Sam had been able to help her out but the damage had usually already been done by then.

Eric growled at the thought of the greasy and smelly men touching this precious light. She looked at him questioningly at the sudden noise. With it he reigned in his possessive stance knowing he had no right to claim her as his own, especially now.

Within any vampire there was always a war waging between the ration of man and the possessive thirst of blood. Eric had always prided himself of being in command of that force that dictated his survival above all else. It was that accomplishment which had swelled his maker with pride when he was but a fledgling.

"I do not wish you to downplay what happened," Eric said sternly. "Who knows what I would have done if I hadn't woken." Those thoughts had run through his mind once too often ever since waking and he knew without a doubt that the thirst would left but a shell of her.

"I guess I have these for that now," she said as she wiggled his fingers at him, the slightest electrical current sparkled between her fingers in demonstration. Whilst the power surging through her hands had frightened her originally she was becoming quite pleased with the possibilities of her newfound bug zappers. "It'll make for an interesting night at Merlotte's."

"Why are so relaxed about this?" He was baffled with the ease from which she had flipped from aggrieved to a stance of nonchalance.

"It's all about choice Eric. It's where I lay judgement. I wouldn't hold Pam responsible if you had commanded her to attack me." She continued to explain, "Would you really be sitting at a table having dinner with me if my accident had been an intended assault on your life?"

"A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational," he quoted.

"Who said that?" she asked, the words seeming vaguely familiar.

"Thomas Aquinas, I think. Godric has a great interest in his texts, sometimes poignant insights stick," he shrugged.

"Your dream, was it a fairy thing? Could I have caused it?"

"I don't know. Fairies are secretive beings and I never had anyone beside me during my day rest with the exception of Pam and my maker."

"No other vampires have been known to have dreams?" she asked as she picked at her vegetable pieces with her fork.

"There are some, but it is considered a gift and immediately apparent after their turning," he explained considerately. His eyes glazes over a little at the memory of the dream, somewhat lost to the reality he was in now. "It felt so real, all my senses were engaged it was not simply a visual and auditory sensation like I remember."

"What other traits are fairies known to have?" she asked wondering if this was the source of her telepathy. His gaze fell back upon hers as her question brought him back from his momentary absence.

"They can't lie so they excel in circular reasoning. It's quite exasperating holding a conversation with one when they're hiding something. Teleportation is common as are the light balls and the healing. Some are known to possess telekinesis, precognition and power mimicry."

The waiter interrupted them to ask if they wanted dessert. Sookie ordered an apple tart and Eric decided to try the blood gelato at her encouragement. He grimaced at the first bite as Sookie moaned in delight at the taste of her dessert.

"Is it that bad?" she asked noting his reaction was a complete opposite of her own.

He nodded, "Blood is not meant to be this cold, all flavour is lost." Every drop of blood he had tasted since his dream had tasted terrible. The donor blood from his fridge had tasted worse than he remembered. He had yet to try a fresh tap but he doubted it would compare to the memory of a taste he never had. A quick glamour of the valet while Sookie was in the bathroom confirmed it.

When they pulled in to the driveway Sookie noticed the scorched bed and furniture standing ready to be taken away. Two handymen were putting away their tools in the back of their truck.

"Eric where am I going to sleep?" she asked as she realised the only other bed in the house was in his bedroom. He had a sofa but that was so modernist, comfort was a quality lost on it. She resigned that that would have to be it for tonight, perhaps she could find someone to deliver a new bed during the day. There wasn't much in her savings account but she was determined to use it to repay the damage she had caused.

"I would offer you my bed but I doubt you want a repeat performance. I can bring you to another one of my homes if you'd like," he offered. Her brows furrowed in response, she didn't like the thought of another unknown environment as she had only just adjusted to this one.

He briefly spoke to the two handymen, werewolves she assumed by their mental signatures. She overheard one of them say such a large sheet of glass would take a minimum of two weeks to arrive. She felt awful, especially when Eric was making up some story about Pam and a flamethrower.

She left him to continue his conversation with the weres and went down to the bedroom to find the cashmere blanket. She looked around the room again remembering what transpired there earlier in the evening. The fear of waking up to someone who wasn't responding to her and discovering her new powers. Both had made her feel powerless in the events.

The healing had done something to her as well. It had allowed her to assert control over the situation and grounded her. She sat down on the crime scene that was the bed wrapping the blanket round her body for some warmth. Eric soundlessly entered the bedroom during her contemplation so it startled her when he spoke up.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

She shook her head no. "I'd like to take up the offer of your bed," she said.

"That works too. Let me set you up with a temporary password so you can leave during the day. I'll gather some things and leave you to it."

"I'm not running you out of your house," she frowned with a slight irritation. Deciding to use his own arsenal against him she added, "What would Nanny Bitty think of me?"

"You're not serious," he returned disbelievingly. "Sookie I'm not endangering you like that again."

"I need to do this Eric. I don't want to be frightened the rest of my life that this is what happens when I sleep next to someone else," her eyes pleaded at his as she clutched his forearm with her miniscule hands in comparison. "I trust you Eric it will be all right."

"Sookie this is madness. How can you trust me when I don't even trust myself?"

"I trust you. I need to be comfortable with you otherwise we will never succeed," she explained. "I need to get back on the horse so to speak."

"Not when the horse is a wild stallion Sookie," he sighed with a frown. "Your lack of self-preservation is extremely worrisome."

"I feel I can trust you Eric. I just need the affirmation now."

"I don't know how I can agree to this," he said shaking his head.

"Well how do you propose we get past this?" she asked with annoyance. The temper that could light up any building in flames was steadily rising underneath the surface of her heated façade. "You can barely look me in the eye, let alone come near me or unleash one of your pervy innuendos. We need to recalibrate and this will do that."

He remained looking at her incredulously even if she did have a point. An extremely dangerous point. He shook his head again as he exhaled an unnecessary deep breath through his nose.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Eric said as he continued to shake his head in disbelief. "You will take precautions, an alarm two hours before sunset and you will carry silver on your body. Added to that we're practicing your light skills."

"No to the alarm," she replied pointedly and at the sight of his stern face continued, "That would defeat the purpose of the exercise. I'll agree to the rest."

"Fine," he gritted out. "I'm taking you out to a practice range perhaps a dress is not the most suitable attire."

Sookie looked down at her sunny yellow dress and had to agree. She went in search of her suitcase that still stood by the front door and brought it down. She asked if he minded if she would change down here and he gave no objections and retreated to the library. He was perusing the shelves looking for any volumes concerning fairies and their powers when she appeared.

"I'm ready," she announced to the hovering vampire in the double height space. "I was wondering how you got to those volumes up high without a ladder. I should have figured you could fly."

"A gift from my maker," he said as he slowly lowered himself down with a stack of books. "Though it didn't set in until my second century. Pam is still decidedly pissed it has evaded her so far."

"Godric took my Gran out flying once," Sookie remembered as she watched the maelstrom of emotions flicker in Eric's eyes. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't speak of him so thoughtlessly."

"No," he said as he set the stack of books down on a table. "I admire your strength in facing things head on. Perhaps I should try it."

Sookie regaled the story of Godric and Gran's flying adventures during the drive over to the facility. It wasn't a particularly interesting story. It had been quite comical to Sookie that neither of them had ever flown on an actual aircraft but had been able to look down onto the earth regardless. Her Gran had been tickled pink for days at the experience and it was the first time Sookie had seen Godric's sombre cloud dissipate a bit.

"So you can just waltz in here whenever you want?" she asked as she took in the supernatural training facility. "Perks of being Sheriff?"

"Yes, but I also own the place," he replied. "I require new born vampires to be trained properly in my area. They are often arrogant with their newfound strengths, forgetting that a weapon needs a master to wield it. It's a good money maker with the other supernaturals too."

"Is the supernatural world truly such a dangerous one?"

"Things are probably more peaceful then they ever have been before," he said. "It's what allowed our reveal to happen in this era. Vampires live for long lengths of time and we can't take for granted that the state of today will be that of tomorrow."

"That makes sense, I guess," she replied thoughtfully as she followed him into a long empty space.

"I'll need to test if this program responds to your light. Tap into the related emotion and summon it," he instructed as he continued to press away on the computer terminal. At the far end of the room a shape appeared in the form of a projection. Sookie had managed to conjure up the ball of light between her fingers and held it up awaiting further instruction. It wasn't as impressive as the one that had struck Eric down but it glowed brightly nonetheless.

"A storm trooper?" she asked disbelievingly.

He gave a shrug of his shoulders, "The man who designed this is a bit of a fanboy. I figured a light saber is the closest thing to your power."

It seemed to do the trick although Eric had to adjust the sensitivity of it before it worked perfectly. He set up the first training sequence and removed himself to the viewing platform above. She was an accurate shot but lacked the necessary speed. Had this scenario been real she would have been fatally wounded many times over. Halfway through he paused the program.

"You rely far too much on your sight," he observed to a panting Sookie. In truth it was her telepathy not that she would admit to that. She had fallen back on sight because her unique skill was unable to help her in a situation without minds. He held up a blindfold, "This will help you concentrate on your other senses." She nodded her permission before he fastened it around her eyes.

"Have you even noticed their scents?" he asked.

"No," she replied. "What do storm troopers smell like anyway?"

"Patchouli oil and plastic."

She giggled a little before she confirmed she was ready to start again. When she found her footing and concentrated on the other senses Sookie's hit rate was vastly improved.

"How did I do?" she asked pulling the blindfold from her eyes when the bell rang in the end of the sequence.

"If we disregard the first half, you were more accomplished than most newborns."

"And with the first half?" she demanded her eyebrow sceptically cocked.

"Then I fear you wouldn't make it past your first decade," he said as he passed her some snacks he found in the canteen.

"Good to know," she said. "Can I try again without the blindfold?"

"Are you up to it? I don't want to wear you out too much, it's late for you."

"I slept for over twelve hours last night, I think I'll manage," she replied. He nodded to set up another sequence upping the necessary skill level by adding in an environment of a dense forest.

"Wow, it's beautiful," she said as she took in the sights, sounds and smells of it all.

She adjusted her senses accordingly and while she wasn't able to fend off every attack, she had a high success rate regardless. She was glowing with pride when he informed her as such.

"Have I fulfilled your required practice now?" Sookie asked downing her bottle of water while wiping away the sweat on her forehead.

"Yes, you have surpassed it. Don't tell Pam but you beat her score on the forest scene," he winked at her. "In fact do tell her, she could use the exercise."

"You have strange ways of motivating her."

"Pam is lazy, nothing will change that," he explained walking her out the doors. "Her determination is admirable in contrast. It pulls unsurpassable effort from her but she's lacklustre without it."

"The three of you are very different," she observed as she considered Eric, his maker and his child. She pulled the seatbelt over her body as Eric started the car. He never fastened his seatbelt and she now figured it was on account of the flying.

"I didn't speak with Godric as much as Gran but it seemed he lived with his mind in the past. Pam appears more concerned with what happens next. You seem more concerned with the present while waiting for what's next. Is that related to your vampire age?"

"No, Godric has always been contemplative but it has deepened with age," he sighed a little. "Pam was obsessive and flighty as a human and I fear she will always remain so. She relishes in being a vampire knowing she can always experience what comes next without the thought that it will end."

"Did you want to be a vampire?"

"I had a choice between true death and this one. I am happy with the choice I made but I cannot say for certain I would have made the same choice under different circumstances."

She nodded in understanding, "Has Pam always been so obsessed with fashion?" she asked hoping to switch to a lighter topic.

"Yes," he confirmed. "She's lucky to have such an eye for business otherwise she'd never be able to fund it."

"I guess it's her way of controlling time," Sookie contemplated. "If she continues to seek out the next novelty she doesn't have any need to contemplate the past."

"You think Pam is adverse to sentiment and nostalgia?" he smirked. "Hardly, she was a Victorian in her human days. It was their livelihood."

"No I don't think it's that," Sookie replied. "It allows her to attach herself to something in motion when she will be forever standing still. It shows great acceptance of what she is."

Eric beamed a little with pride at her assertion. Perhaps he wouldn't berate Pam as harshly the next time she took hold of the company credit cards for personal use.

"We humans," she started, although Sookie had to seriously reconsider her identification to that species soon, "have an expiration date. An uncertain one but a definite one. We have to use our time knowingly. It forces us to move forward whether we want to or not."

"You are very observant for someone so young," Eric said after some thought.

"You kind of have to be when no one else seeks you out for conversation," she said absent-minded while staring up at the stars through the car window.

Her social isolation still puzzled him. Yes, her more abrasive tendencies would be an indicator but those were a reaction to a cause. That cause remained a mystery to him. She disrupted his thought process with another question, "How do you deal with it?"

"Deal with what?" he asked trying to remember their topic of conversation before his mind wandered.

"Time ticking but not away in your case," she said tapping her finger tips away on her thighs.

"We are not truly immortal, we have our weaknesses."

She scoffed at that, "My life could be up within five minutes but I don't live according to that tenant. I doubt you made it to over a thousand with that philosophy."

"True," he admitted. "That doesn't mean I'm not cautious. Honestly I don't give it much thought. I accept time for what it is and trust I can live alongside it if it can tolerate me."

"That's not really an answer," she bristled.

"It's best one I can give you," he smirked. "At this moment in _time_."

"Always deflecting with humour," she scolded.

"Can you blame me? This is more Godric's area of expertise," he returned with a slight edge to his voice.

"I'm sorry if I unnerved you," she offered with some regret.

"You have not," he stated simply and she understood it for the truth it was.

"Would you mind if I spoke to Godric about these things?"

"If you can reach him by all means. On this specific topic I would rather you didn't," he replied.

"This is why your relationship is strained," she stated rather than asked. Eric acknowledged it with a minute nod. "He struggles with time passing him by?"

He remained silent for some time. Eric wasn't comfortable discussing his maker's troubles with anyone, not even Pam. However the small blonde next to him had an uncanny ability to leave his emotions unguarded in her presence. Perhaps it was a fairy thing. He intended to use that excuse to explain a lot of things.

He held onto the steering wheel a little tighter than he should, his knuckles turning a blinding white before he admitted, "No he struggles with _his_ continued existence in spite of time."

oOoOoOo

Eric woke with the permeating smell of arousal flooding the room. He was up far earlier than normal and he had to actively fight the enticing scent. He moved himself from the bed hoping the distance would help clear his head. He observed the little fairy in his bed. She had moved towards him in his sleep and he still felt where her heat had radiated on his skin. The smells, the moaning, the accelerated heartbeat, the writhing heat as she rubbed herself over the spot he had just occupied. It was all too much for him to watch and not partake in.

He sped out of the room and into the bathroom and under the shower. He considered relieving himself. The memories of his waking the previous evening stopped him and he turned the shower cold. He heard her scream his name after he stepped out of the shower. Much to his disappointment it wasn't in climax but rather in concern.

He sped to her still dripping wet and a towel round his torso.

"Oh thank god," she exhaled. "I thought I vanquished you in my sleep."

"I am fine," he replied. "As are you. Your little experiment was a success."

"Except now I was the one with the dreams," she grumbled. "Please tell me I didn't assault you."

"No, I woke before you. Were you shooting light balls in your dreams? When I left it seemed quite a different dream," he said as he overtly ogled her exerted body glistening with a sheen of sweat.

She blushed in embarrassment at his knowledge, refusing him an answer to confirm it. His almost naked form dripping with wetness wasn't helping things along either. Eric continued to tease at her by stalking close to the bed taking in the scents where he usually lay. He sniffed far louder than necessary.

"Yes I was correct," he smirked in triumph. "It was quite the _wet_ dream wasn't it little Sookie?"

She huffed in annoyance still refusing to give him any further ammunition.

"Don't worry Sookie," he said departing into his closet. "I enjoy any attention you give me, even giant light balls."

"You're quite the masochist," she yelled after him.

"How else would you explain your presence," he returned playfully.

She rolled her eyes even though he wasn't there to observe it. She gave a secret contented smile, her little experiment had worked indeed. He was back to being a pervy ass and she was the subject of his mockery again. As for her, his touch now excited her as much as it unnerved her. Just as before.

Over dinner Pam had joined her and was discussing the merits of Dolce over Donatella but apparently no one trumped Gianni. Sookie silently listened as she ate her pasta, incidentally the cue of Pam's lesson on the Italians, hoping to make sense of her babbling at some point. Eric had already departed to conduct his business at Fangtasia so there was no hope of escaping the tales of the fashion gods.

"Sookie," Pam said as she was cleaning up after her dinner. "I have a present for you."

"You don't need to get me anything Pam," she said. "You guys pay me enough already. I can't accept it."

"You can and you will," Pam commanded. "Here," she said as she thrust the box in her hands with a little more force than necessary. "For the fangs I wanted to fashion on your pubic mound."

"Thank you Pam," Sookie said remembering her manners although far from content trading Pam's overreaching tastes for material goods. When she opened it she pulled out a pair of red boots. Not quite her cowboy boots, they were more elegant than that. They were the type of ankle boots she saw effortlessly elegant women her age wear on TV shows. The red was also less garish and darker, staining the leather deeply from within. Sookie would never have picked them out for herself but she thought they were beautiful regardless.

"I saw your old ones got scorched in the great Sookie blast," she shrugged. "They were hideous but at least they gave you a backbone. Never underestimate the power of heels."

"I'll try to remember that," Sookie said admiring the sheen of the leather. "What's on the itinerary for tonight?"

"I figured since I've pretty much schooled you on most things decorum we should start restocking your wardrobe," she said as Sookie's face fell at the thought of it. "Now put on your new shoes, I demand to see a bit of resistance. If I wanted to play dress up with Barbies I would have stayed home."

Sookie looked at Pam with bewilderment, "You play with Barbies?"

"No," she said mildly annoyed. "I buy them clothes and change their outfits. I don't _play_ with them."

Pam's tone indicated the conversation was over so Sookie wordlessly exchanged her shoes for the boots. When she stood up Pam nodded with approval.

"So where are we headed?" Sookie asked reaching for her coat.

"To the office, but first I need to get some things from my car." Sookie gave the blankest look Pam had ever seen on her. "Sookie, our little slice of Louisiana is hardly equipped to appease my tastes. Thank god for Internet shopping."

"You got me to change my shoes to sit behind a computer?" she asked perplexed.

"One must always look good to shop," Pam replied seriously. "Even if it's behind a computer."

Sookie headed up to the office knowing it was useless to argue with Pam over such statements. Especially if she didn't care either way. The upstairs office sat unused beside her old bedroom. A new bed had been delivered just after sunset and set up in the office. There was still ample room to move around but it was slightly more cramped than the rest of the house. Pam unceremoniously dumped a stack of fashion magazines on the bed where Sookie had settled herself. She rummaged around in the desk drawer till she found the sticky tabs she was looking for.

"Mark anything you like," Pam said tossing her the tabs. "Doesn't have to be evening or cocktail wear specifically. I'll start assembling options into wish lists."

Sookie nodded and started paging through the first magazine as Pam started clicking away at the computer.

"Eric's right," Sookie observed. "You're quite the force to be reckoned with when determination strikes you."

"What in heavens made him tell you that?" Pam asked aghast that Eric was dispensing information about her. When Sookie explained their outing yesterday and Sookie's score Pam let out a little sigh.

"I hate that he knows me so well sometimes," she said. "I guess I will be visiting the practice range after I'm done here."

"Isn't it nice that someone knows you that well?" Sookie asked. "It must be nice that no matter what he's there for you."

"I suppose," Pam replied as her beady eyes were zeroing in on an exquisite dress as she rapidly clicked away at all the different angles. "The thought it might not be there is frightening at the same time. I've seen many vampires fall at the loss of their maker."

"Do you worry for Eric and Godric?"

"Yes," Pam answered curtly. "Don't let him know that. I'm not supposed to know anything, even though I feel everything through the maker child bond. _Men_. Let me see what you have so far."

Pam looked over Sookie's preferences and nodded in approval. "You're a flowy romantic but you like the structure and strong lines of tailoring," she analysed. "I can work with that. Follow me."

Sookie did as she was told and gazed at the screen with her. "This is Marchesa," Pam informed as if she were introducing Sookie to the Son of God himself. "I think you will like their things. Look this will be perfect for the barbecue."

Sookie gasped as she saw the beautiful silk-gazar dress with a dropped waist, capped sleeves and a voluminous skirt, a balloon skirt Pam informed, that dropped just by the knee and fell lower in the back. The silk held a painterly floral print in soft spring colours. It looked like a modern rendition of Scarlett O'Hara' barbecue dress.

"What barbecue?" Sookie asked hoping a supernatural version wasn't that different from the human ones. Pam had already put the dress in her virtual shopping basket and was now seeking appropriate accessories options, simple and demure in contrast to the abundance of the dress. Sookie balked at the height of the shoes but that just cemented her next lessons for the week.

"Russell Edgington, king of Missisipi has an annual barbecue. He re-enacts the whole Gone with the Wind party including the sleepover," she explained. "Although his version is all boys and vampires don't sleep."

Sookie winced a little, she adored that movie and up until the sleepover it sounded quite fun. "It's a glorified orgy then?"

"It's quite an elegant affair aside from the sleepover actually," Pam said not taking much note of Sookie's distaste. "There's talk of a marriage between our Queen and Russell so we'll be required to be there this year. We can leave without problems before the sleepover, in fact women are all but shoved out of the place at that point. It's a good opportunity to assess how far you've come."

"All right then," Sookie said with some relief over being unceremoniously evicted from the party. "Wait why would a gay vampire want to marry a woman?"

"They call it marriage but it's basically a hundred year alliance," she replied absent-minded as she directed Sookie for her opinion on five other dresses. Sookie liked two. Pam had checked out and paid for it all before Sookie was even able to take in the total. She was actually rather glad not to know, the few prices she had seen had shocked her well enough.

"I think we have plenty for now," Pam said closing down the computer. "Most will arrive within two days. Keep reading those magazines and note what you like."

Done with the evening's requirements Pam sat down next to Sookie. With as much concern as she could afford she asked, "How are things between you and my maker?"

"We're good I think, he's back to his innuendo self and I still balk at it," she said. "Like it was when I met you guys."

"That's encouraging," Pam agreed. "It was amusing up until last night's events but what has you refusing him anyway."

"He's my boss, it wouldn't be proper," Sookie said resolutely.

"That's never stopped anyone from pursuing their boss," Pam said bored observing her manicure for any flaws. "Give it to me straight, as you humans say."

Sookie let out an exasperated breath, "What good would it do? He's incapable of having a relationship. It's the whole reason I'm here after all. If I just wanted a roll in the hay I could have taken up with Sam years ago."

"The shifter is not awful looking why haven't you?" Pam observed. Though she no longer had a taste for men she could still appreciate them for their aesthetic beauty. Though on scent alone all weres and shifters were disregarded by her selective tastes.

"I have no romantic feelings for him. It would be unfair to lead him on like that when he does have those feelings for me."

"Feelings," Pam scoffed. "I was brought up in the tail end of the romantic period. All these moon eyed girls waiting for their Lord Byron to appear and sweep them of their feet. In the end they gave it up for the first man their parents told them to marry."

"What's your point Pam?" Sookie asked with a slight irritation.

"There were more unhappy sots among those that married under the guise of love than those whose marriages were arranged."

"This is not Victorian England Pam," she said still bristled at Pam's demoralising views on love.

"Says the person whose lived through it all and seen it happen many times over," Pam replied sarcastically. "Things haven't changed much when it comes to 'feelings'," she air quoted.

"Says the hundred plus cynic who has obviously never known love," Sookie retorted.

"Who says I haven't been in love. I just don't restrict myself thinking it's this one unique thing that falls onto your lap one day. Love is as much about allowing it for yourself as it is about receiving it. You can love someone for one night if you want to," Pam said in a matter of fact tone. "You're not even allowing for the possibility because you're scared of being just like Sam, at the unrequited end of it.

"Eric's a picky man. He sired me after all," she continued while batting her eyelashes. "He cares for you more than most. If it were possible for him with anyone it would be you."

"No," Sookie shook her head with steel determination. "Things are dramatic enough as it is. I don't see how we are all going to make it through the next few months if _feelings_ get mixed up into it as well."

"Well I don't know how Eric's going to make it through the next five months if you keep rejecting him," Pam cackled. "But at least it will be entertaining to watch."

Sookie just rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"You know you're awfully defensive about all this Sookie. If it's really nothing you should just kiss him and be done with it," Pam supplied.

"What exactly is that going to achieve, Pam?"

"Removes the 'what if' from the equation. No one lies in a kiss especially when a fairy's involved," she shrugged.

"I'll take it under advisement," Sookie replied hoping this topic was coming to an end real soon.

"It works for me either way, sweet cheeks," Pam said. "Though that healing of yours was an experience. Fancy trying it on me?" The accompanying leer was quite disconcerting to Sookie.

"I'll consider it if you ever get injured," she said non-committedly.

"Shame," she replied. "I'm off to Fangtasia. Tomorrow we're starting on you in heels. The barbecue is only two weeks away."

Pam bid her goodbye and Sookie ate a small meal before Eric joined her upon his arrival.

"So Pam informed you of the barbecue," Eric said nursing another vile bag of blood. "I agree with Pam it's a good test case, albeit an all vampire crowd. How are your dancing skills?"

"As good as Vivien Leigh's," she replied with a certain amount of pride. "It's part of a Southern Belle's upbringing after all."

"Well then we'll just have to practice together," he said pleased at the sight of her excited eyes. "It's been a while since I had use for formal dances. Fangtasia is closed tomorrow we'll practice there."

"Pam thinks we should kiss," she blurted out not sure where it had come from.

He cocked his brow at her in confusion as she blushed profusely for her unintended slip.

"Pam thinks everyone should kiss," Eric remarked dryly alleviating some of her embaressment. "Especially her ass."

"She thinks it will alleviate the tension." '_Or intensify it' _she thought.

"Sookie I want your body, your blood," he said. _But not my heart,_ she sighed to herself. "A kiss isn't going to alleviate that it's only going to make it worse. Now I will gladly kiss you, we've already established I'm a masochist," he smirked. "But it's hardly going to change anything. At least not on my part."

"You're right," she agreed deciding it was high time to get off this accidental conversation. "What's on the lesson plan tonight?"

"Incidentally, vampire marriage among the royals and other such power relations amongst the supernatural."

**A/N: For those of you who haven't seen it yet: in celebration of my fanfic birthday this past Wednesday I wrote a silly little one shot called **_**The Doctor is in**_** that has Dr Ludwig setting right some of the wrongs of CH's dead ever after. Please check it out if you like.**


	9. Chapter 9 - Tickles

"_Pam thinks we should kiss," she blurted out not sure where it had come from._

_He cocked his brow at her in confusion as she blushed profusely for her unintended slip._

"_Pam thinks everyone should kiss," Eric remarked dryly alleviating some of her embarrassment. "Especially her ass."_

"_She thinks it will alleviate the tension." 'Or intensify it' she thought._

"_Sookie I want your body, your blood," he said. But not my heart, she sighed to herself. "A kiss isn't going to alleviate that it's only going to make it worse. Now I will gladly kiss you, we've already established I'm a masochist," he smirked. "But it's hardly going to change anything. At least not on my part."_

"_You're right," she agreed deciding it was high time to get off this accidental conversation. "What's on the lesson plan tonight?"_

"_Incidentally, vampire marriage among the royals and other such power relations amongst the supernatural."_

Chapter 9 - Tickles

"Hi Godric," Sookie said as she waved enthusiastically at the little red dot by the webcam.

"Hello Sookie," he returned with a wary tone. Never one to move along with the modern age he was still decidedly weary with the machine his assistant had set up. "Can you see me? I can see you."

"No move the camera up. I can only see your chest," she instructed and told him to stop when it was positioned properly. She stifled a giggle when she caught a full close up of his nostrils as he sat himself down again.

"This is very interesting I have never spoken to someone over the computer before," he replied before he wistfully continued, "It would have been nice to speak with your grandmother like this when she was alive."

"Well we never owned any of this fancy equipment," Sookie said gesturing at the expensive set up that Godric couldn't see from his end. "I'm sure she would have enjoyed it too. She liked your presence."

"My blood still mourns for her," Godric offered.

"Eh, thanks," Sookie replied not sure if that was the correct response. "I have some questions."

"Yes you mentioned this in the letter. What can I help you with?" Sookie thought it sweet that the ancient vampire still referred to emails as letters. Her grandmother had always reminded her change didn't happen in a day and Godric was the physical embodiment of that particular lesson.

"Well Eric and Pam know a lot but certain things they are not so good with," Sookie started to explain in her nervous ramble. "I was hoping you would be helping with the more spiritual and philosophical aspects of things."

"What things? Why are you talking to Eric and his child? They are not suitable company for a lady such as yourself," Godric spoke with worry in his tone.

"They seem fine to me Godric," Sookie said coming to her new employer's immediate defence. "Well Eric is a bit of a horn dog but aside from that they're perfectly respectable."

"You have yet to explain why you seek their company," he admonished as his worries remained unalleviated. She knew there was no use to it but pitifully Sookie tried to smooth the frown that had appeared on Godric's young face smudging the computer screen in the process.

"I'm helping Eric out," she replied. When Sookie finished regaling how their venture had come about Godric's face was carrying the same stoic expression as when they started. Knowing the vampire for a full month when he resided in her home she knew it meant he was troubled and displeased.

"I do not like this at all," he stated coldly. "I promised your grandmother I would look out for you when she no longer could. I think you should leave."

"Godric I'm not leaving," she stated with a warning fire dancing in her eyes. "You have no say over it whatsoever."

"Sookie you are under my protection," Godric returned restlessly. The technology that had fascinated him mere moments before now frustrating him to no end in its limitations. "It is not safe for you to be with Eric. He will use you without any regard for what happens after."

"Seriously?" she fumed at the screen wishing she could throw something at him. Sookie gasped when the heavy metal stapler she was attempting to crush in her hand suddenly disappeared smacking Godric square in the face.

"Sookie something strange happened," he said in complete bewilderment. "I will need to speak with you about this later. I will call Eric to release you."

"Godric wait, no…" Sookie yelled after him but it was too late, he had already ended the connection.

"You were talking to Godric?" a sleepy voice asked by the door. Sookie was in the basement level office as it was the only computer with a webcam. She had asked Eric for access the night before and he had given her a password without issue not knowing she was contacting his maker. As a result of their weird bed sharing encounters a mutual trust had emerged when it came to each other's safety so he had thought little of it.

"Yes, expect a call later tonight," she replied with a huff that had a few tendrils of her hair airborne. "Oh, I owe you a new stapler. What are you doing up so early?" Sookie asked looking up at the clock reading it was just 4:38 in the afternoon.

"Side effect of old age. Godric is up before me, how else were you able to speak to him."

"Makes sense I guess," she mused while scratching her head. "Figured it was the time zone difference. Must be nice to have those extra few hours."

"It just pisses me off most of the time," he said while rubbing his eyes like a tired young child. "I wake and can't get back to my day rest and I'm not really fully attentive."

"So you're grumpy," she concluded with a teasing smile.

"I am vampire. I am not grumpy."

His denial only made the sight more adorable. "You are so a grumpy old man," she taunted.

"Hmph, I am not man I am vampire."

"Keep telling yourself that buddy. You're just as much a man as I am a woman," she quipped a little too self-satisfied.

"Pray, do tell little Sookie. What is it that a man and woman do together," he leered suggestively his tone sinister.

She looked at the clock noting it was 4:40. "Seriously Eric," she fired back rolling her eyes. "Two minutes is as long as it takes for your mind to be back in the gutter."

"Who says it ever left," he winked at her.

"Good god, don't you ever tire of yours_elf_?" she retorted with a note of exasperation.

"Never," he beamed with immodest pride. "My stamina is legendary."

"Except before sunset when you're a big ol' grump," she laughed at him.

"I'll show you what this grump is capable of before sunset," he mocked suggestively before he sped to her. Well slowly walked it wasn't very impressive at all. Sookie squealed running away up the stairs to the ground level easily evading his slow form's pursuit.

"Hide behind your precious little sun why don't you!" he bellowed up the stairs. "Just wait till it's gone."

"I'll have my perfectly bottled version of the sun waiting for you right here!" she yelled back down activating her sparkly fingers in demonstration while standing triumphantly at the top of the steps.

He shook his head at her antics before collapsing on the sofa pouting a little and hiding an amused smile. Eric was usually more productive in his afternoon hours, seeing to the administrative duties as Sheriff from the comfort of his bed. His semi-conscious mind was sharp enough to work the repetitive tasks on autopilot. However, upon rising today the scent wafting into his nostrils had him wide awake and out of the bed without a thought.

To Eric's surprise Sookie returned not much later with a warmed bag of blood and a cup of hot cocoa for herself. Their usual ritual had reversed as she settled beside him on the couch with the blanket that seemed inexplicably attached to her ever since arriving in his home. She snorted with a poorly concealed smile as she eyed him sucking away at the blood bag like a petulant child with a sippy cup.

"Tell me what happened with Godric," he asked breaking their silent standoff.

"I assumed he knew why I was here, but apparently he didn't," she said pointedly. "He told me I shouldn't hang around you and I was under his protection or something like that."

"We don't inform each other much of our comings and goings," Eric shrugged. "Continue."

"Then he started telling me what to do and I was so mad I wanted to throw something at him and then all of a sudden the stapler in my hand disappeared and smacked him in the face. He probably thought he was being attacked by some mystical thing and hung up before I could tell him," she ranted on but before Eric could make sense of it all Godric was calling on his phone.

"Master," Eric replied and was soon berated for referring to him as such when he was considered his equal and no longer his keeper. He swallowed the sigh and apologised for his misspoken word.

"Godric, what can I help you with," he tried again before Godric started admonishing him in Old Norse over Sookie's supposed involuntary imprisonment.

Eric looked utterly dejected as his maker went to town on him and his inept plans. He thought it reeked of Pam and it should stop this instant. Sookie caught the gist of it despite not understanding the ancient language they spoke. She pulled the phone from Eric not really willing to wait out this dreadfully long speech.

"Godric," she said with a clipped tone while Eric stared at her wide eyed with her sudden intervention.

"Sookie," Godric replied with surprise in his voice. "Do not worry I will have you out of there soon."

"Listen Godric," she started again. "First let me apologise for the stapler. In case you were wondering, that came from me. Apparently I'm part fairy and I discovered a new power."

"Sookie that is exactly why you have to get away from Eric. He will drain you dry for your blood," Godric's worried voice carried down the cracked reception of the telephone line. "He should not use your powers for his own gain. Eric will not care for what happens to you tomorrow."

"I think you underestimate him," she said sternly. "I've been here for over a month and he has been a perfect gentleman."

_Well mostly._

"He's glamouring you Sookie. He has taken your free will."

"That doesn't work on me Godric many have tried and failed," she returned. "We have a contract. This is a job nothing more."

Eric's attention quirked with the new piece of information that Sookie was not susceptive to their glamour. It was an ability that had lost its novelty to him ages ago, granted he was a high connoisseur of the craft but Eric liked his triumphs to come from skill rather than thrall.

"This is why I felt him yearning the past month," he supposed in quiet contemplation. "Eric cares for you." The last sentence was spoken almost as if Godric himself was surprised the words fell from his mouth. Like the words tasted wrong in his mouth.

"Wrong child Godric, I've been more of a hindrance to him," Sookie said correcting his assumptions. "I was a bit of a pitiful pearl without my familiar surroundings."

"What happened two nights ago"? Godric questioned with wonder before continuing, "He was conflicted then in pain and then I felt this wave of relief. It pulled me from my vow of silence. I had to cry out it was beautiful."

"Sorry that was me again," Sookie apologised while biting the corner of her bottom lip. "I accidentally hit him with a light ball and then I healed him."

"You healed him with your light?" Godric asked in marvel. "I never felt anything like it."

"Yeah," she replied with a hint of embarrassment fidgeting with the soft fabric of the blanket. "Will you all stop making such a big deal out of it? I feel bad enough that it was necessary at all."

"I still do not like you staying with him," Godric stated as he reverted back to his initial disapproval of the whole scheme.

"You're not my keeper Godric, I'll do what I damn well like," she all but yelled out, the threat evident in her voice. "I warn you, next time I'll find something heavier than a stapler."

Eric warmed at her defence of him and Godric felt it clearly across the bond. A rare occurrence of mutual amusement carried across their faint tie with the intimidating words of the tiny spitfire bouncing on the couch with her induced temper.

He sighed reluctantly, "Sookie, I worry for you but I feel you are at least a good influence on Eric. I wish to speak to you over the camera every day at the same time we spoke today. So I am assured you continue to be safe."

"Yes, dad," she spoke, the sarcasm dripping from her tone. "Hey do me a favour can you hold the stapler in your hand. I want to see if I can conjure it back."

"I am holding the offending item," he informed as soon as he held it in the open palm of his hand.

Sookie concentrated on Godric and the stapler and suddenly it materialised back in her hands. She squealed in delight showing it to Eric who merely gave an approving nod and contained the wide smile that was threatening to reveal itself with her excitement.

"Thank you Godric, I'll see you tomorrow at 4:15."

"It was good hearing from you again Sookie," he returned before hanging up the phone.

"Guess I don't owe you a stapler after all," she winked while placing the stapler in Eric's hand. He sniffed at it a little suspiciously. "What? It's exactly as it was, maybe down a few staples."

"It smells of fairy," Eric said accusingly.

"I thought you liked fairy smell," she returned unimpressed by his continuing grouchy attitude.

"Yes, that's the problem," he grumbled with a pout. "I don't like feeling like this."

"Feeling what?"

"Like it's a really good idea to lick a stapler."

"Good god," Sookie snapped as she attempted to grasp the stapler from his hand. Instead he caught hers and flipped her onto the sofa. She shrieked in shock.

"This is your punishment for taunting a grumpy old man," he said with mock menace as he hovered over her, pinning her down without the effect of his considerable weight.

"I can't believe I fell for that," she said shaking her head with a poorly hidden smirk. "It's not even sundown yet."

"Pam dragged me to acting classes in the 80's. You like?" he asked jumping his brows up and down his forehead at superhuman speed.

"Yes," she mocked. "You're a real natural. Now let me go."

"I'm not finished with you yet," he said suggestively which made her huff. Before she could register him moving, his hands were on her tummy tickling her and pulling loud shrieks from her lungs. She tried to wiggle away from his grasp and tickled right back where she could. Much to her surprise Eric was extremely ticklish himself.

Sookie quickly gained the upper hand, growing up with Jason Stackhouse had its benefits after all. Soon she was straddling his body, her fingers flying away at his abundant funny bones. She looked down on his carefree face and in that moment all her objections flew out the window. She leaned down and pressed her lips on his and kissed in earnest. The coolness of his skin tantalised hers, all her nerve endings standing to attention. His wet tongue darted out painting the bottom of her lips with his saliva seeking entrance as the edges of their mouths met in a tentative touch.

She lowered her chest onto his as she granted him access and their tongues sought their new companion gripping on to another in a soft embrace. His hands roamed over her back and behind pushing her down on him closer while her fingers explored the grooves of his scalp as they meandered through his hair. Her thundering heartbeat filled Eric's own empty chest with vibrations as he groaned, low in his throat, at the taste of her. In over a thousand years nothing had ever tasted this good. Not even the finest blood could compare. He peered into the darkness of her eyes, the flames that ignited so easily at her ire now flickered with desire. His cool body warmed with that sight alone, knowing it was reserved to him. She pulled her lips from his as she regarded his brilliant blues with equal appreciation.

He brushed the bottom of her lip with his thumb with the precision of a fine artist. "Beautiful," he murmured in admiration before he took her lips as his own again. She clung to him desperately sinking into his grasp seeking that connection where all that would remain standing was just the two of them. The world around them completely forgotten. His unrelenting lips send shivers up and down her shaken nerve endings engulfing them both in a sea of warmth.

Tremors were wracking his body at her touch and he desperately sought to intensify what bound them together. He nicked his tongue with his descending fangs and at the taste of the sweet metallic liquid flooding her mouth she sucked his tongue down greedily. She moaned at the taste of it, the vibrations setting of a chain reaction of electric currents running between them.

When his wounds inevitably closed upon themselves her tongue sought out his fangs. She tenderly moved the tip along one, then the other before she scraped the soft tissue of her sensitised muscle along the sharpened ends and gave herself in an offering of blood.

It was in that moment where the insanity of their bodies took over from their minds. Nothing but the joining of their uniquely crafted life forces met and meandered from ancient to fresh vein and back again. Humming to life in recognition of one another. The abundance of his saliva soon salved her wound and he released his hold so she could fill her lungs once again.

Sookie panted in her daze as the locked looks between their eyes remained unyielding. Eric thought this is what it must be like to be glamoured, for in this moment he would do anything she asked of him including ending his own life. If she demanded it of him then it was hers to take.

"You're everything I never saw, never knew I wanted," he whispered to her as his fingers danced over her cheek to reassure himself she was really here with him.

She kissed the corner of his mouth tenderly before staring him down intently again. "I never knew it could be like this," she said throatily while witnessing the twinkle in his eyes transform into a brilliant smile of equal gleam.

"You should be kissed more often," he replied cockily.

"By you, no doubt," she smirked with equal tease, the Gone with the Wind reference not lost on her.

"Who else kisses you like this?" Eric asked as he softly pulled her down cupping her face with his all-encompassing hands. She melted into his touch and any thought she still had perished in loss.

"What the FUCK!" Pam gasped, a convulsion previously lost in her altered vampiric state.

At her distress her maker responded immediately and her phone rang incessantly.

"Pamela what is wrong?" he demanded instantly.

"I dreamed of you and Sookie," she answered with a shock ridden voice seeking a breath she did not need. "And it didn't even include me!" she said outraged at the most disturbing part of all.

**A/N: Please don't kill me… You all asked for kisses last week and well you sort of had one ;)**

**Now for some more disturbing news, I'll be off on holiday for the next couple of weeks to a place where Wi-Fi will be shoddy at best. I'll see what I can do but it may happen that a week passes without an update or that it happens on a different day. **_**It's Already Gone**_** is the only story that will continue as scheduled seeing that it coincides with the show. For those impatient ones among you I suggest to read/catch up with another one of my stories while I'm gone or make sacrifices to the Wi-Fi gods and pray for good reception. I'll be back at work September 1****st**** so unless I catch Hep-V regular scheduling will commence from that point onwards. **

**This morning even more disturbing news reached me over on WP. Apparently an 'author' by the name of Alexandra Anthony plagiarised ficlit78's Pretty Kitty and has been selling it online on Amazon and other websites. Please help her put a stop to this. To read the post on how to do so go to: ficlit78. wordpress 2014/ 07/ 28/ plagiarism-for-profit/ Just reattach the spaces**


	10. Chapter 10 - Parade

"_You should be kissed more often," he replied cockily._

"_By you, no doubt," she smirked with equal tease, the Gone with the Wind reference not lost on her._

"_Who else kisses you like this?" Eric asked as he softly pulled her down cupping her face with his all-encompassing hands. She melted into his touch and any thought she still had perished in loss._

"_What the FUCK!" Pam gasped, a convulsion previously lost in her altered vampiric state._

_At her distress her maker responded immediately and her phone rang incessantly._

"_Pamela what is wrong?" he demanded instantly. _

"_I dreamed of you and Sookie," she answered with a shock ridden voice seeking a breath she did not need. "And it didn't even include me!" she said outraged at the most disturbing part of all._

**Chapter 10 – Parade**

"So everything up until Sookie handing you the stapler happened?" Pam asked Eric in shock. It was a rare sight on the female vampiress' otherwise stoic façade.

"Yes," Sookie supplied. "I put it back on the desk and then we continued our discussion from last night. No kisses, no blood sharing… He has yet to convince me though, I don't get why you would call it a marriage if it's nothing more than a glorified shark's womb."

"That's because you are hung up on this romantic notion of marriage. Marriage has always been a contract. It's nothing more than a merger of personal assets," he replied completely ignoring Pam's near sedate state on the couch.

"There's nothing personal about it!" Sookie returned her temper flaring high. "It would make sense if two vampires could make a child together and he or she would be the heir apparent. No, you all won't die so you set an alarm clock for a hundred years. Just call it a damn alliance."

"Alliances are temporal, marriages are sealed by blood," Eric tried to explain.

"A symbolic gesture, if it doesn't stop them from trying to kill each other. Call it a merger. A holmgang would be more accurate," she returned exasperated.

"What do you know of holmgang?" Eric asked intrigued at her knowledge of his people's ancient duelling tradition.

"Two men on an island only one comes back. You have a lot of books Eric and I have a shit ton of time," she retorted as if it was the most logical thing in the world and it was somehow evading him. "Hey did you ever end up in one?"

"No," he sighed with deep regret. "They were outlawed in my youth."

"I like the concept." she said as they continued to disregard Pam. "I think it would make an interesting reality TV concept. Like Judge Judy meets American Gladiators."

"You really do have too much time on your hands," Eric observed with a wry smile. "That sounds awful. Especially considering how terrible humans have gotten at hand to hand combat."

"That's the point!" Sookie exclaimed with childlike excitement. "Reality TV is all about man's inability to do what the show's about."

"Will you two shut up," Pam hissed in annoyance. "Have your discussion without me some other time and talk about my dream. I'm freaked the fuck out."

"Welcome to the club," Sookie murmured as she softly held her hand in apology sitting herself beside the jumbled vampire.

Eric redirected his attention back to his distressed progeny with the anguish palpable in their shared bond. She hated being cared for especially in the presence of others but she allowed Sookie to soothe her physically. Eric concluded the situation must be really upsetting to Pam when she allowed for that.

In a move as familiar as the descending of his fangs Eric pulled out his wallet from his back pocket. Sookie gave him a scrutinizing look with the movement. The sight of the black piece of plastic however turned her eyes into full-blown daggers.

"Don't you fucking dare," Sookie seethed next to an already chipper looking Pam. "Retail therapy is no way to handle her distress. Or this situation."

"Yes, it is," Pam said utterly confused.

"You really think buying something with someone else's money is going to take away the fear that you can't predict when this happens again?" she accused. The scrutiny of Sookie's eyes may as well be projecting silver to Pam as it had her shivering at her core with the thought. "That the next time you experience one of these lifelike involuntary dreams it may not be something as innocent as a kiss."

Pam paled a little from her just nourished pink complexion at the prospect. She uncharacteristically started twitching. "So what do you suggest?" she snapped while tapping away nervously with her feet.

"Warn Godric for one. The poor fellow already got attacked by an unidentified flying stapler let's not add to that confusion," Sookie said thoughtfully. "If these dreams can pass down a vampire generation I assume they can go up just as well. Figure out if this is some weird fairy thing. Is there anyone you can consult on this?"

"I'm aware of a small group of fairies in my area," Eric mused out loud. "I don't feel comfortable exposing you to them without knowledge of your specific lineage."

"A fairy can't just be a fairy?" Sookie asked confused.

"No," Eric responded leaning his long body against the wall behind him. "They all belong to one elemental clan; sky, water, fire or earth. Tensions have been running high in faerum for centuries."

"They're at war?"

"Not yet," he sighed. "Which makes it more dangerous for you. The attacks are now on directed targets rather than engaging in overt hostilities."

"You won't introduce me to some local fairies but you'll happily dangle me in front of a whole group of them at some summit?" she asked incensed. "It's good to know you're happy to risk my safety as soon as your obligations to your Queen are fulfilled."

"Do not think so lowly of me," Eric growled out as he moved in front of her within an imperceptible blink of her eyes. "Just because our contract will be up does not mean I will not look after you. You are a supernatural in my area, you have my maker's protection and you will have mine. Scot-free. I daresay you may even have Pam's."

Pam nodded in accordance with her maker's presumption. Sookie's ire cooled a little with his words as he continued, "At the summit we would, and will still, pass you off as a lesser faeling breed. They are like cannon fodder to the fae," at her horrified look he quickly added, "only sacrificed in battle not outside of it. Their allegiance is never as distinct as with the elementals so they aren't targeted as such."

"I'm sorry," Sookie said with a noticeable amount of shame at her presumptions. "Thank you for your continued protection."

Eric simply nodded his head minutely as it remained eerily quiet in the room, as it always was with vampires for company, until he announced he would be calling Godric.

"I don't need to tell you the significance of Eric's continued protection," Pam stated to Sookie as her maker retreated to the privacy of his office. Sookie nodded, she understood it fully well. Her lessons with Eric had mostly focused on vampire politics and customs so far. Protection wasn't given lightly or without securities.

"Has Eric ever…" Sookie trailed off when she lost her nerve.

"He gives his protection all the time to those who owe him fealty. With no strings attached? No he doesn't do _that_ often," Pam supplied. With Sookie's unchanged pensive look she stated, "Though that wasn't what you were asking."

She blushed slightly pulling her bottom lip inwards with her blunt teeth. Knowing Pam would be relentless till she spoke the unspoken Sookie sighed before asking, "Has Eric ever shared his blood with someone?"

"He told me I was the first. That was only to turn me and he hasn't offered his blood to anyone since," Pam answered. "It was part of your dream too then."

"Yes," Sookie replied simply willing the rush of heat inside her to go down with the surfacing memories. "Have you ever shared your blood?"

"Don't tell Eric, but I tried to turn a bunny once," Pam said conspiratorially. Sookie only just managed to swallow the lump in her throat that emerged with this particular confession. She tried desperately not to think of an innocent and white fluffy bunny streaked with crimson.

"The critter didn't swallow too well," she shrugged. "Never with a human though."

"How about other vampires who have given their blood to a human?"

"I've seen some humans tied to vampires. Mostly for skill or safety," Pam recalled with her restless fingers tapping away at the armrest of her seat. The nerves of her waking yet to leave the tremors of her body. "There are the rare occasions where it's out of affection, mostly it's about control."

"You wouldn't want that?" Sookie asked before clarifying, "With a human?"

"No," Pam answered decisively. "It's bad enough being tied to Eric all the time. Ask me in a couple of hundred years maybe it's different then."

"You don't like your bond with Eric?" Sookie asked confused. Pam seemed to be perfectly content alongside her maker as far as she had observed. They had a unique relationship; where the burden of care interchanged in catering to the moment. Sometimes she was like his mother other times a daughter or sister. It was unusual for Sookie to understand at first but it made perfect sense between them.

"No. It's difficult to explain," Pam said trying to put it to words. "He's everything to me but sometimes I wonder what is still of me. I was born to be a vampire of that I'm sure. As far as makers go I have yet to see one better than Eric. I would say that even when he wasn't mine."

"You need to know you can stand to be without him too," Sookie supplied knowing the feeling well. Her Gran had been her lifeline from the moment her parents died. Probably before that even. With her grandmother's sudden death she found herself unprepared to deal with a life without her. Sometimes an awful thought took hold of her during her period of gried, that perhaps she would have been better if Sookie and Adele had not been as tightly bound as they were.

"I suggest you stop taking his credit cards as your own," Sookie proposed. "Heels might inspire confidence but your own money inspires worth. Those cowboy boots were special to me because they were the first large purchase I made with my first pay check."

"It's how he shows his affection," Pam explained before continuing, "Who am I to take that away from him."

"If you don't he'll never learn to show it in another way. He'll respect you for it," Sookie said in return.

"This is why you refuse him," Pam observed. "You demand to be treated different."

Sookie shrugged a little not denying or confirming it since it was in that moment Eric returned to the room.

"Godric has been warned," Eric announced matter of factly. "I now also know you are of the sky fae but I am under no circumstances to introduce you to any other fairy."

"Oh," Sookie said with a hint of disappointment. She had felt different her entire life and bit back at anyone who attacked her on it. The telepath in her had accepted her solitary state in life but the possibility that there was family out there that shared her quirks had given her a sense of belonging.

"You still owe me a lesson in heels," Pam announced hoping to distract Sookie from her downturned mood. It only made Sookie scowl a little at the thought of the painful assault to her feet.

"Perhaps for tonight we just stick to our dancing lesson," Eric offered sensing her disquiet.

"If it's okay with you both I'll just dance in heels and Pam can observe," Sookie said. A quick nod between them settled it and they set off to Fangtasia without pause.

The building didn't look like much to Sookie from the outside, it was such a stark contrast to Eric's precisely and thoughtfully created home. Grey concrete rendering, blacked out windows and a customary red awning. They entered through the back opening up to a myriad of hallways and bar related items not dissimilar to the back end of Merlotte's.

Pam switched on the lights over the deserted dance floor allowing Sookie to take in the club in its full effect for the first time. Chairs and stools were pushed aside or upturned by the cleaning crew. Despite the industrial odour fuming from the cleaning products the smell of alcohol and sweat was one that was difficult to eradicate from the premises.

The walls were lined with random vampire paraphernalia, Sookie barely recognised half of it. She concluded it was pretty much what any regular human would expect a vampire themed club to look like. "It's very nice," Sookie said politely. "Interesting."

The two blonde vampires carried identical upturned brows at her comments. They wouldn't be insulted if Sookie proclaimed it to be the most horrible thing she'd seen in her life. It was a business to them, it needed to look the part, approachable with a hint of danger. It was carefully engineered to look that way. It served a purpose, beyond that it could burn down for all they cared for its decor.

"This feels a little bit like what a vampire bar would look like if it were a...a ride at Disney World," Sookie said a little more honestly which earned her a smirk from Eric.

Pam cackled as she sauntered over to the sound booth. "Sookie get your heels on," she instructed while sorting through and loading up the appropriate music. Sookie sat down on the corner of a booth her legs turned out to the dance floor. She slipped out of her own comfortable pair of flip-flops and exchanged them for the high heeled strappy sandals.

Eric observed her struggling with the thin leather bands of the ankle straps. He swooped in kneeling in front of her helping her get the slim piece of metal into the tiny hole. Eric finished strapping her in by pushing his thumb over the raised bump of leather. His hand lingered a little longer than appropriate as he looked up to her while she thanked him for the help. His fingers trailed up the side of her calve as he intently stared at her before standing up to his full height again. Eric's cool touch had felt like a series of electrical charges igniting her and it didn't fade when he helped her up with both hands as his unrelenting eyes were yet to depart from hers.

Sookie stood up, wobbling on her stilts like a new born giraffe before managing to steady herself using Eric's out turned arms for balance. She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet and followed him out to the middle of the dance floor.

"May I have this dance milady?" he asked with a half bow in an old world voice that accompanied the archaic words he spoke. Eric held her fingers in his hands delicately as a small snort escaped her with his display of theatrics. Sookie wondered if it was an authentic accent or just an acquired persona for the night or one of his past.

"Of course, milord," she answered with a small curtsy as if they were re-enacting as scene from one of her Gran's romance novels. He pulled her closer to his body with a respectable distance still between them. His right arm stretched out to the side where his left rested chastely on her back. Sookie placed her other arm firmly atop his shoulder. With the acquired height of her heels they fit quite well despite his taller stature.

Pam started up the music for a traditional Viennese waltz and Eric expertly led her round the room picking up his left foot before dragging in his right leg to close the step again. His movements were calm, controlled and calculated, much like the man himself. Sookie followed with ease, the heels not impending her footwork which was light and dainty.

They were scrutinised at length by Pam whose feet had been shaped by dances just like these in her human days. She closely corrected where necessary as they moved from one formal dance to the next. To her assessment they were perfectly prepared for whatever dancing was required at the summit with a few more practice sessions. Sookie lacked the stiff rigidity in her body for the required formality of it all so Pam adjusted her accordingly until she started to hold the tension in her muscles properly whereas Eric appeared too stiff in compensation at times.

Fatigue started to set in on Sookie after the second hour and her body was becoming sticky with sweat from the effort of it all. To her annoyance Eric was unchanged and didn't seem to tire a bit in the process. When he twirled her once more she sidestepped and tripped over her other ankle. He caught her before she managed to hit the floor holding her in his arms firmly like a true damsel in distress with their faces closely held in proximity. Her warm breaths exhaling at a heightened pace as if grazing tender caresses over his bristled skin.

"If this was some horrible chick flick this is where you two would kiss," Pam said snapping them out of their collective stupor. "Get back on your feet Tinkerbelle. It's not like we've got all night. Actually… we do."

Sookie did as instructed but Eric interrupted her movement, "I think this is enough for one night Pam. This little fairy needs to rest."

Sookie nodded in agreement as she drank greedily from her water bottle, downing it in one go. "Is there somewhere I can clean up?" she asked wiping away her damp hands at her t-shirt.

Eric directed her to the staff bathrooms while Pam shut down the music system. Leaving her to take care of her human needs Eric retreated to his office across the hall to pick up some outstanding work documents. He overheard Sookie cursing as he waited outside the door for her patiently.

"Anything I can do to help?" he asked through the door when she was absent for longer than he expected.

"I'm fine," Sookie yelled as she continued to grumble, "It's these damn straps."

"Let me help you," Eric said sternly as he suddenly appeared in front of her. She let out a small shriek at the sudden sight of him in the female changing room.

"I can do it," she returned irritated while continuing to fumble with the thin leather strap her head going red with effort. Sookie let out a frustrated groan with her tenth attempt and dropped her upper back onto the soft padded bench she was sitting on.

"Can you help me?" she asked meekly in defeat. It helped that her gaze was directed at the ceiling far out of reach from his undoubtedly triumphing blue eyes.

"I thought you were convinced of your own capabilities," he smirked.

"Yes well apparently my unending fairy skills are stumped by tiny leather straps."

"I'd love to help," he said with a hint of malevolence. "But what's in it. For. Me."

"Forget it," she huffed out in annoyance. "I'll call for Pam."

"Pam already left," Eric lied quickly.

"No 'goodbye Sookie' or anything," she said with furrowed brows. "For all your decorum and etiquette it seems to fizzle out as soon as it comes to farewells."

"Well we vampires don't like to dwell on that aspect of life too much."

"I guess it's always see you soon with you guys," she remarked looking up at the ceiling her feet still dangling over the side of the bench. "Now will you please free me from these torture devices?"

"Why don't you tell me about your dream?" Eric proposed slyly. He received a full glare of the stink eye with that suggestion. Drawing on his expertise, he was after all an excellent negotiator even in his human days, Eric got up brushing his hands needlessly on his jeans. "I'll leave you to it then."

A slight panic set in at the thought of having to walk any further in these shoes and have to struggle to get them off once there.

"Fine," she whispered.

"Fine what?" he asked gleefully not expecting her to give in so easily.

"I'll tell you about my dream," Sookie said evenly. "At no point are we to talk of it again."

"Agreed," he said with a little bit too much self-satisfaction for Sookie's liking.

"You were very upset," Sookie started as Eric started fumbling with the first metal clasp. Even with his dextrous fingers and vampire skills they were proving to be a worthy adversary. "You couldn't feel Pam or Godric anymore. You felt empty and alone."

His hands stilled on her ankle as in that instant he regretted asking Sookie about her dream as she voiced his greatest fear aloud, an eternity of loneliness. Not wanting to be caught in that public admission he quickly managed to release the band of leather from the metal clasp as she sighed in relief with the loss of pressure. That noise made the whole endeavour worth it for him again.

"I don't know why but I offered you my blood," Sookie said before moaning as he set to massage her aching foot. Only because it felt so soothing did she allow for it to happen without protest. Her voice lowered a little at his attentions, "You said it wouldn't change anything, just nourish you."

"I refused your blood?" Eric asked dumbfounded at his other self's actions.

"Yes. So I offered to take yours as well," she continued with her softened voice. "You asked me if I was aware what I was offering. I said it would allow you to feel me, be connected to something again. Then…" She trailed off as his massaging hands moved further up her strained calve. She didn't realise the effort she had exerted with all the dancing until he began to loosen that particularly aching muscle.

"Sookie?" Eric asked waiting for her to continue as she drifted off into relaxation with the soothing his hands brought.

"Mmmm," she simply replied as her muscles sang with relief. He pulled his hands off her releasing an annoyed mewl from her before realising their bargain required she continue with her story. "Then you kissed me."

"How?" Eric asked while his hands reasserted their labour

"Needy," she said after some contemplation. "Desperate almost. It was nice though, it took me by surprise."

"I don't think I have ever kissed someone out of need or desperation."

"Well you were still good at it, if that helps," she offered at which he chuckled with amusement. "You were good at everything," Sookie whispered to herself though it did not fail for Eric to overhear. He was quite pleased that his prowess even extended into Sookie's subconscious without a sampling of the wares. His hands moved to her left leg fumbling with the next offending clasp.

"Then some other stuff happened," she said rushing through the storyline.

"What other stuff?" he asked pointedly while retracting his hands from her again in warning.

"Sexual stuff," Sookie huffed out. "That's all you're going to get."

"Fine," he said a little disappointed as he freed her from the shoe's hold. "Please continue," he asked as he set to work on massaging her foot with extra care hoping to coax more out of her than she was willing to share.

"I asked you if you just wanted to feel anybody," Sookie said. She hissed a little when he moved over a sore spot. "Shit that's going to blister."

"I can heel it with my blood," Eric offered surprising himself with the offer. She shook her head no at the ceiling not daring to voice the rejection callously out loud. "I've worked on my feet for years. I'll handle them fine." She shivered a little in relief as he moved his cool hands up her pulsing calve again.

"You said you only wanted to feel me. No one else in the world," she continued. "I said it was sweet and all. Of course you denied owning an ounce of sweetness."

"What did I say?" he wondered aloud requesting the specific phrase.

"You said the only time you were ever sweet was when you had gorged yourself on fairy blood."

"That sounds like me," Eric chuckled. "I take it you didn't respond to kindly to that."

"No," she said with a soft smile. "I reconsidered my offer but I didn't tell you. You told me the truth then."

"Which is?"

"You wanted to feel what I felt for you," Sookie said as another involuntary moan escaped her lips. "I was an anomaly to you. Couldn't figure me out."

"Continue," he said as his hands moved past her knees. Each hand now resting and caressing the soft flesh of her lower thighs while his body loomed over hers.

"I hesitated and then you struck," she said before lowering the volume of her voice to just above a whisper. "With your fangs."

"Did it hurt?" Eric asked huskily as he continued his ministrations inching his thumbs higher up her thighs albeit it still within relatively innocent territory. It had always been a point of pride that he had a tender bite unless engaged in battle.

"No," she said softly. "You were gentle, attentive despite the sudden nature of it. Then I drank from you."

"Where did I drink from you," he demanded his touch a little harsher than before. Eric was already having difficulty restraining the bulge in his pants the scent of a slow trickle of her arousal that surfaced with her retelling didn't aid his cause in his nearness. She bit her bottom lip refusing him an answer.

He trailed his torturous thumb up her right thigh forcing an answer from her without demanding words till his finger rested with tension against the throbbing of her femoral artery mere inches away from her sex.

"There," Sookie returned breathily only then realising how far he had journeyed from the soles of her feet. She sat up again pushing his hand down while looking him straight in the eye, a fire resounded beyond her gaze but it wasn't filled with anger like he had witnessed before.

"Where did you drink from me?" he asked intensely staring into her darkened orbs.

"There," she said drawing a line to above where his heart would have once beat.

"You drank from me even though you changed your mind?" Eric questioned while moving his hands over hers on either side of her legs.

"I reconsidered, I contemplated, I hesitated," she answered. "I didn't say I changed my mind."

"Yield to me, Sookie," he strangled out with the desperation and need of her described kiss. His face hung closely to hers but never close enough for their skins to touch. He was half expecting Pam to burst into the room in that moment to ruin another chance of making Sookie his as he awaited her physical or verbal response.

She shook her head. "I'm just a puzzle to you Eric. Once you figure me out it'll pass."

"What if I don't want it to pass?"

"Everything passes whether we want it to or not," Sookie sighed. "As old as you are, this shouldn't surprise you."

"You do," he said while running the tips of his fingers through her matted hair. The scent of her exertion calling to him as strongly as every other bodily fluid she seemed to express. She smiled softly at his admission. It was an amicable smile. They regarded each other silently for a few of her soft breaths retaining the silence she so enjoyed. "Why did you scream in fear when you woke?"

Sookie looked down towards her offending hands. "The sensation of the blood it overtook me in the dream," she said as her eyes started to glisten at the memory of it. "I hit you with my light. It was different to when I attacked you or healed you. You lit up and I woke and all of a sudden you weren't there beneath me." A small tear trailed down Sookie's cheek, her voice lowered considerably as she continued, "I thought I killed you in my sleep."

He lifted the tear off her face with his thumb. "I remember," Eric said before licking the tear from his finger. His eyes dilated at the taste of it and he groaned a little internally. He was lucky that Pam chose that moment to barge in distracting Sookie from realising he was about to come in his pants from the taste of her tears alone.

"I thought you left," Sookie said to Pam with the confusion clearly written all over her face.

"Leave without saying goodbye to my favourite breather?" Pam returned with mock hurt.

"I'm your favourite breather?"

"You're the only breathing thing she talks to beyond a required thirty seconds," Eric remarked dryly, having quickly regained his stature. "It's hardly a compliment considering the competition."

"Don't care," she smiled. "I'll take what I can get."

"Don't _cum _down all over her parade," Pam returned to Eric pointedly glaring at his crotch. He may have been able to hide it from Sookie but Pam knew exactly what kind of bomb had detonated inside his pants.

"It's rain on your parade," Sookie corrected.

Pam merely shrugged with feigned innocence as Eric's death glare descended on her. It was probably only because of her abrupt waking earlier that she was spared her maker's verbal berating in that moment. "I'll see you at the house tomorrow with the tailor. Good night."

"Bye Pam," Sookie waved as she got up. "Hope you don't have any more dreams about me."

"I have no objections to those dreams," Pam purred. "As long as he's out of the picture."

"I know what you mean," Sookie giggled humouring the female vampire who departed with a fangy smile.

Eric looked less than pleased.

…

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…

**A/N: Thanks to whoever made sacrifices to the WiFi gods, it is still holding strong. I hope it was Bill or even Sookie and not cute fluffy bunnies.**

**I am still officially on holidays so updates will come when they come. I am sticking to the order in which I usually release them so 6 Months to Live will be the next to receive an update just don't ask me when... It's Already Gone will be updated on Sunday as usual.**


	11. Chapter 11 - Dinner and a Movie

"_Don't cum down all over her parade," Pam returned to Eric pointedly glaring at his crotch. He may have been able to hide it from Sookie but Pam knew exactly what kind of bomb had detonated inside his pants. _

"_It's rain on your parade," Sookie corrected. _

_Pam merely shrugged with feigned innocence as Eric's death glare descended on her. It was probably only because of her abrupt waking earlier that she was spared her maker's verbal berating in that moment. "I'll see you at the house tomorrow with the tailor. Good night."_

"_Bye Pam," Sookie waved as she got up. "Hope you don't have any more dreams about me."_

"_I have no objections to those dreams," Pam purred. "As long as he's out of the picture."_

"_I know what you mean," Sookie giggled humouring the female vampire who departed with a fangy smile. _

_Eric looked less than pleased._

**Chapter 11 – Dinner and a Movie**

"Are you ok?" Sookie asked on the car ride back to the house. He had been unusually silent and it had her wondering if the teasing she and Pam had engaged in had pushed him too far.

"Fine," Eric replied curtly. He was far from it. Never had he been rejected like that. Yes there had been those that had refused and he had abided by it. Her dream had revealed startlingly accurate truths about him, she was an enigma and now knew some of his innermost fears. It made him all the more vulnerable in her continued refusal, no one had ever rejected him when they were clearly attracted to him. Her resistance was counter to her body's desire. Putting him beyond frustration. It only made him yearn for her more. He respected her for it while he despised her at the same time.

He considered dropping her off at the house and finding himself a feed and fuck for the night. Sookie may be the exception to the rule but it didn't mean the rest of the female population had suddenly followed suit. A hand dragged tersely through his hair as the car came to a standstill in front of a stoplight at an empty intersection. A small sigh escaped him as he made the decision that would shape the entertainment of the night. Eric was old enough to realise it would be a momentary distraction that would only remind him of what he couldn't have. The bouncing blonde beside him that resisted every advance his touch could elicit. Even when she gave him nothing he would prefer it over second best.

It was just like when he was a newly turned vampire. Everything needed to be consumed but he was continually held back by another being that ruled over the allowance of every newly found instinct that surged through his body in desperation to strike out.

Where all food smells repulsed him as a rule, the scent of meat roasting still made him salivate at the mouth. The cruelness of the intense smell combined with the burning charcoal for something he could not ingest had caused one or more temper tantrums in his desperation to satiate that appetite.

He had foolishly tried to ingest it once with disastrous results. Godric had merely sat and chuckled at his foolishness as his body had continued to purge the now foreign invasion. At another point in his existence he had picked up a detached limb on a battlefield and patiently roasted it over the fire like he would the boar meat of his human days. That proved to be a failure too. Vampires were not flesh eaters much to his disappointment.

Sookie's scent was not the only thing taunting him, it was her presence and the sparks that flew off her as she challenged everything he had taken for a sense of order for over a thousand years. He'd gotten past the allure of what her body could offer quite quickly when this bounty had been presented to him. She was a challenge he refused to back down from but her young wisdom had struck a nerve with him. What if the attraction was indeed only for the conquest and not the subject of the victory? He'd experienced that often enough and nothing could tell him if this was the same. It was a true first for him to be so unsure of exactly what it meant and what he ultimately wanted from her.

He had always considered love a human affair. Those with an expiration date had more use for it than the eternals. The tomes that charted the progress of the supernatural world spoke lyrically of mates and destiny but he had yet to see the true thing emerge. There were couples that had bound themselves to each other for eternity in three exchanges but they were not universal in their ways. Some were happy, others were anything but.

It was a risk to be bound so intrinsically. He had always been happily independent and had yet to find reason to tie himself to others voluntarily. He released Pam as soon as she was able. Submitting to an emotion like love would tie him once more. From what he had witnessed it could be as suffocating or liberating as a blood tie. He couldn't calculate the odds, predict the outcome or find any certainty. Eric could only plunge in and await the results or turn his heart cold as he had done for a thousand years.

Sookie had refocused her attention to the world outside of the car, watching the scenery blur by as Eric's foot found the accelerator with the appearance of green light. Despite the heat of the radiator the outside seemed a warmer place to be right now as the frost that had overtaken Eric refused to thaw.

"Would you like to eat somewhere?" he offered realising this would be the time she ate at home.

"I don't want to inconvenience you," she said meekly. Eric carrying a thundercloud over his head was not a pleasant experience that Sookie wished to expand on. She felt terrible that she was probably not much different the first month at the house. Pam's insinuation that he walked on eggshells for her was not too far off as she exercised the same behaviour now.

"It is no trouble," Eric replied with a more friendly tone of voice hoping to appease her. "Maybe watch a movie after."

Her glance shifted sideways where she saw the carefree light in his eyes return proving to her the words had been spoken with the perceived emotion. "Like a date?" Sookie teased.

"Is that what humans do on a date?" Eric asked genuinely unaware. "I've never been on one."

"Seriously?" she probed unbelievingly. He just nodded and Sookie figured with the way women just threw themselves at him it probably wasn't that farfetched. "Yes, it usually involves food and some form of entertainment."

"You have been on many then?" he enquired, assuming she had otherwise he would not be able to explain her immoveable resistance. Eric was beginning to build a theory that her scorning of man when they were wanting her most was how her home town had walked in such fear of her. Perhaps she was related to sirens of some sort. Willingly or not he was at her mercy and would remain so until that was lifted under her directive.

"Not really," Sookie said as her eyes travelled to what passed them outside. "A handful at most."

"Why so little?" His ill formed theory was already proving incorrect but he considered it could still be valid if she had chewed out the more prominent members of that town.

Sookie gave a tiny shrug. Not comfortable in revealing her telepathic nature and its impact on courtship she offered him a half truth, "You've met my brother. He's considered the best dating prospect in Bon Temps."

"I'm surprised you indulged any of the men then," he said with a chuckle. Eric's imaginations of Sookie the Siren were completely lost to him now when he remembered the clientele of her former employment. "If your brother is the town's most eligible bachelor."

"Hey," she said slightly incensed. "That's my brother you're talking about."

"You're the one who made the analysis."

"True," she conceded.

"So Sookie Stackhouse will you go on a date with me?"

"No," she laughed thinking he was still verbally sparring with him. "But I'll take you up on dinner and entertainment."

oOOoOOoOOo

Sookie was ready to keel over as she endured another night in excessively high heels. The tailor turned out to be some tiny demon wizard pinning away at the beautiful silk dress that she had taken delivery of earlier that day. Sookie held her breath as much as she could whenever a pin threatened to strike in fear that some blood might stain the exquisite fabric.

Pam was testing out the sixth hairstyle atop her tightly pulled at head but remained disgruntled with the results so far. Sookie liked the second option and stopped caring after the fourth. They had miraculously agreed on the light make up quickly. Apparently vampires preferred a fresh face to an overly made up one.

She shrieked a little as another pin pricked her like she was a pincushion luckily not drawing any blood but the motion caused the careful construction of her hair to fall to chunky tendrils around her.

"Not too tight please," Sookie asked with desperation as she felt the fabric around her waist singeing her in impossibly tight. "I want to be able to dance and sit down. And breathe."

The tiny demon gave her a threatening look that communicated the nonsensicality of her request. Pam instructed her to listen to Sookie who was desperately trying to suck in a breathe of air in the process. The demon set to work with a minor scowl on her face before disappearing from her peripheral vision again.

"We'll just have to book in a session with Immanuel," Pam sighed as she regarded her seventh attempt at Sookie's hair. "My turn demon."

"Ok," Sookie replied not knowing who Immanuel was but assumed it was a hair stylist of sorts.

As the demon hobbled off after Pam into the bathroom Sookie admired herself in the full length mirror swishing the voluminous skirt back and forth. She felt like a small child again in her first real dress and she couldn't help but smile the giant grin she had worn then too.

She startled a little when Eric's form joined her in the mirror. "You look beautiful," he whispered in her ear.

"Thank you," she returned before quickly turning round to face him. "Pam's not happy with the hair yet."

He pulled the pins from her overworked hair letting it fall naturally behind her shoulders. "I always prefer it loose," he stated while running his fingers through, inhaling the scent of sunshine. His nose upturned slightly with the impressive amount of product that Pam had worked into it. Eric decided from that moment on Pam should not hold any dominion over Sookie's hair anywhere.

"Me too," she agreed. "Do you mind…"

"Sorry," he said pulling his hands from her tresses where he had been willing the heavy product out with his fingers.

"No," Sookie replied with a kind smile. "I wanted to ask if you would mind unzipping the back."

"Of course," he declared all too happily, which made Sookie wonder how smart it was to ask this off him. She turned around to face the mirror again and held her hair up to one side her face automatically shifting her face to one side exposing her neck to him. She startled at the sight of their reflection which displayed his hungry face hovering over the crook of her neck. She quickly adjusted her throat to a rigid stance again and held her hair higher up.

She let go of her hair as quickly as possible when Eric's nimble fingers deftly moved the invisible zipper down. "Thank you," she said while carefully stepping out of the gown in her nude slip dress. It covered more of her than her Merlotte's uniform so she considered it modest enough but Eric's unabated hungry look made her reconsider her initial estimation of it. She felt absolutely naked with his roaming gaze that he didn't bother to hide.

"Have you fed tonight?" Sookie asked carefully as she rehung the dress on the large hanger shielding the vision of the front of her body.

"Are you offering?" he tested with an unmistakeable hunger.

She squeezed her thighs together at the thought of her dream. She could ignore everything else in the dream for she had a reference to it. The closest she ever came to a bite was when Jason had bit her during a scuffle when they were children. That was only shocking and painful but the dream had offered something much more than that. A pleasure that far overshadowed the pain of the first bite, a rush she had yet to ever experience.

"I can warm a donor bag if you show me how," she offered, hoping vainly to divert the attention from the beating pulse in her neck and the blush that seemed to be spreading over every bare expanse of her body.

Eric regarded her intensely. "You're interested," he remarked with great satisfaction. She was as unnerved by the whole situation of the unknown as he was. It returned a confidence to him he had abandoned when faced with the uncertainty of future results. He finally understood he could have a hand in the outcome.

"Interested in what?" Sookie stammered as she wrapped her cashmere blanket around herself in an attempt to regain her modesty.

"Me," he said self-assured before continuing, "Biting. You."

"Am not," she answered in quick irritation, which only revealed the truth of his words with a discerning accuracy.

"You're a capable liar," he observed with a taunting grin. "Your body says otherwise. Your blood is all but screaming to be let out."

"Fine," she huffed in defeat. "I'm curious. That's all."

"I'll be happy to quench that curiosity," he leered at her.

"I'm not a cat with a death wish," Sookie deadpanned.

He chuckled as he regarded her feet. "Do you need help again with those too?"

She considered it as they had been a pain in the ass to put on again without his help earlier that evening. "Yes," Sookie replied hesitantly wondering if the man had a foot fetish. "You're awfully deft with them."

Eric shrugged unimpressed as he kneeled in front of her where she sat on the edge of the bed. "Only because of Pam," he said with his face hovering awfully close to the spot where he had struck for blood in her dreams. His hands on her ankles did nothing to alleviate the rising heat that seemed to now overtake her body in his presence. "She's just as impatient with footwear as you."

"Sure you don't want my help with that," he asked as his nose grazed over her thighs following the path of a life giving vein. She was unable to hide the shiver it caused to travel through her body and landed her eyes in the negative space that surrounded him.

"No," Sookie returned just above a whisper.

"Just let me fucking feed off you," he snarled at her with his fangs out. The beast in him should have frightened her instead it just aggravated her washing away the heat of lust as it was replaced with scorch of anger.

"Here," Sookie shouted out as she thrust her wrist to his mouth, "have at it."

His fangs clicked back in place instantly and he backed off retreating to the door and left without another word.

"Quite impressive Tinks," Pam drawled out as she entered from the bathroom in her own elaborate gown.

"He's not much scarier than my cat Tina with her canines out," Sookie shrugged still slightly pissed at his demand of her body. "Will he be ok?"

"He'll get over it," Pam said as she studiously took in her own appearance in the mirror as the small demon set away at pinning her in. "Why are you curious?"

She remained silent in response until Pam's scrutinising gaze refused to relent. "It was so different than what I thought it would feel like in my dream," Sookie sighed. "It felt so real." Pam nodded in agreement knowing all too well how lifelike the dreams felt, it was simply as if observing another reality.

"They don't line up around the block of Fangtasia every night for nothing," Pam informed with a leer. "Eric has quite the reputation as a biter. Amongst other things."

"I wouldn't want to use him like that," Sookie said as she stared at her wiggling toes that were celebrating their liberation from the confining designer footwear. "He deserves better than to be a vehicle to get off on."

"I don't think he'd mind," Pam said between scolding the demon and her assaulting pins. "I certainly wouldn't."

"I think he would," Sookie returned. In fact he had told her so not too long ago. "I'll remember to seek you out if curiosity gets the better of me," she winked at Pam.

"As enticing as that sounds, I think if I took you up on that offer it would be the first time I would fear for my life at the hands of my maker."

"Sorry."

"You're quite the rarity," Pam observed as she tested out the bond that had her maker in turmoil from the moment he ran off from the room. "He's calmed down now if you want to talk to him."

Not wanting to allow the situation to fester any further Sookie agreed and left the room in search for Eric. She found him floating up high in the library speed-reading through an antique volume. He needed something rational to explain his loss of control and the obsession that had erupted over a seemingly insignificant waitress from the most unimpressive place on earth.

"Hey," she said when he finally noticed her presence.

"Sookie I'm sorry," Eric offered sincerely as he floated himself down to stand in front of her. "I'm not normally out of control like that."

"I know," she returned with kind eyes. "You were right, I am curious. It must be difficult for you to restrain yourself around me. I'm like one of those walking chicken drumsticks from a cartoon." Her little quip had them both chuckling softly as the severity passed and made way for some neutral ground again.

"How did you manage from not being drained by all your vampire guests?" Eric questioned wondering how any other vampire could control themselves around her. Even Pam was affected by her, albeit it not with the intensity and insanity in which he seemed to be experiencing it.

"There are wards in place all over Bon Temps," Sookie clarified. "One of Jason's exes reignited them. They're strongest around the farmhouse."

He smirked with that knowledge. "This explains why you so fearlessly handle Lorena."

"No," she said defiantly, shaking her head vehemently. "According to Pam I was pretty fearless with you just now. I'd kick Lorena's ass, wards or not." He chuckled at her audacity and he believed if any tiny little part human could kick vampire ass it would be Sookie Stackhouse. She made that TV character Buffy look meek.

"Yes that was most impressive," he conceded. "I overheard your conversation with Pam."

"So I assume she's going to get a warning on not munching away on me," Sookie prodded.

"Yes," he admitted with a grin. Eric knew it was childish but in his mind if he couldn't have Sookie than no one could. His voice took on a more serious tone as he continued, "I would not have considered you like one of the fangbangers begging for a bite. Thank you for being so considerate when I was not."

She gave a small shrug, "Don't sweat about it."

"I'm no longer capable of that," he smirked.

"Really not even in a sauna?" Sookie asked.

"Little beads of blood," he laughed at the memory of the frightened human that was with him the first time he discovered just that. Sookie giggled along as he recalled the story to her and the creativity of his glamour.

"Have you fed now?" Sookie queried as he finished up his story.

"Yes," Eric replied as he caressed her cheek. "Don't worry about it."

"I was never worried," she voiced while showing off the fearless persuasion of her eyes. "Tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow what?" Eric asked as his brows scrunched in attempt to meet each other.

"If you let me I will feed you."

"You're a strange creature," he remarked masking the internal victory dance jumping around in his pants. "I worry for your self-preservation."

"So I've been told," she smirked right back.

…

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**A/N: The WiFi gods are being somewhat helpful so I'm getting out a chapter when I can… **

**I am still officially on holidays so updates will come when they come. I don't think this story will get another update till September but you never know. I am sticking to the order in which I usually release them so 6 Months to Live will be the next to receive an update just don't ask me when... The final instalment of It's Already Gone will be updated on Sunday as usual.**

**MsBuffy, Beta extraordinaire and devoted supporter of this fandom, is issuing a 'Dream Team' challenge where ten fanfic authors are nominated by the readers to rewrite Season 7. So please head over to her website .com and leave your suggestion for writers and betas in the comments section I'm not sure what the cut-off date is but it's soon. ****Results of the ten nominated authors ****will be up by the 28****th****. You don't need to sign up with wordpress in order to leave a comment behind. **

**Gyllene is also hosting a HEA contest on her site and she is encouraging new talent to join. Entries due by August 31****st****.**

**I got started with Sephrenia's Writing Challenge and it was a really great experience so don't be shy, it's all good fun. Nobody bites, well maybe Eric but I doubt you'd mind. Sephrenia will also be hosting another round of that challenge soon, the banners are already done and I will put in a reminder here when it's fully up. **


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